Michael Douglas Was Mistaken for Kids’ Grandfather by Their Teachers

Michael Douglas does not head being an more mature dad, even when he is sometimes mistaken for his kids’ grandfather.

The Oscar winner, 79, recounted an uncomfortable instance when he visited one particular of his young ones at college. “This is not grandfather’s working day, this is parents’ working day. I say ‘I am a dad or mum!’,” he recalled in an job interview with The Telegraph released on Saturday, April 20. “That was a tough one particular.”

Douglas shares daughter Carys Zeta Douglas, 20, and Dylan Michael Douglas, 23, with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, to whom he has been married considering the fact that 2000. He also shares son Cameron Douglas, 45, with ex-wife Diandra Luker.

According to Michael, his 25-yr marriage to Zeta-Jones has been a “good journey,” and he thinks increasing his family later in everyday living made him a greater father. Even so, this doesn’t suggest he has zero regrets about his technique to parenting.

“Cameron endured a lot from that time,” Michael explained to The Telegraph of his eldest son. “I was just confused and overloaded by my operate. And spouse and children was definitely getting 3rd area just after function, our state and then the spouse and children, as opposed to when Catherine and I obtained with each other. And you’ve carried out adequate do the job presently that you have been searching additional to love the possibility and the youngsters.”

In May well 2023, Cameron spoke about how his struggles with drug dependancy and an virtually 7-calendar year stint in jail from 2010 to 2016 damaged his romantic relationship with his father. “My father, apart from me, was most likely the relationship that took the longest to form of, you know, discover its way back to — I imagine a position in which equally of us felt fulfilled and felt risk-free,” Cameron exclusively instructed Us Weekly past 12 months.

“It was yrs of my conduct [that added to] us not really possessing a great deal of a partnership [starting] because I was an early teenager,” Cameron explained to Us. “It was hardly ever a terrible connection, you know, we constantly type of experienced a excellent time collectively and certainly appreciate every single other. It just was not a lot there simply because I wasn’t available.”

He added that it “took a minor even though for [Douglas] to form of believe in me again,” but he was “grateful” the two could now “enjoy every other’s firm on a typical basis.”

As for his youngest two youngsters, Michael informed The Telegraph on Saturday that he and Zeta-Jones ended up savoring staying “empty nesters” now that the kids have either moved out or gone to college. On the other hand, he admitted that as the years go by, it has grow to be additional of a problem to continue to keep up with the youngsters.

“I’m just sliding by just now,” he stated. “I’ve reached the place in phrases of snowboarding and a few of other functions that I’m no for a longer period able to keep up with them on any foundation. But it’s great obtaining anyone glimpse right after you and say, ‘You Ok, father?’”

He continued, “This has been a good time for me but I’ve been really fortunate. Catherine and I have been collectively, it’ll be 25 a long time this yr. So it is been a very good ride and I have been pretty lucky, pleased with the options that I’ve produced and now am kind of truly backing off and smelling the roses a small extra, touring additional. We’re vacant nesters so we can get around a ton far more than we employed to increasing two children in your fifties, sixties, and into your seventies.”

Douglas went on to say that Dylan and Carys have brought him and Zeta-Jones a “tremendous amount of money of joy,” calling them “extraordinary beings.” “I in all probability absolutely have to thank their mum and Catherine,” he added. “They’ve just been a joy. We have had no issues for every se. Experienced a lovely, beautiful everyday living alongside one another. Dylan is fully out of college now and Carys has received 1 more year of school.”