Catherine Zeta-Jones has said her 26-year marriage to Michael Douglas would never have lasted if the couple had stopped working and settled into an ordinary domestic routine together.
The Welsh actress, 56, told The Sunday Times Culture that the secret to her relationship with the 81-year-old Hollywood star is time spent apart. "Michael is, like, 'Do that job, that's amazing.' Then he's able to fly in and see me," she said.
"Much better than waking up, going, 'What do you want for breakfast, honey?' I don't think our marriage would ever have lasted if it was like that," she added.
Zeta-Jones and Douglas fell in love nearly three decades ago, after he told her during their first conversation, "I'm going to be the father of your children." The couple share two children, Dylan, 26, and Carys, 23.
Their marriage has not been without difficulty. They separated briefly in 2013 during a period in which Douglas was diagnosed with throat cancer and Zeta-Jones was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. The pair later reunited.
Careers on different paths
Douglas stepped back from acting in 2022 after a career spanning nearly 60 years and has said he will only return to the screen for something "special."
Zeta-Jones, meanwhile, has continued working steadily throughout their marriage. In recent years she has found major success playing Morticia in the Netflix hit Wednesday. She is next set to use her natural Welsh accent for the first time in decades to play a former cocaine kingpin in the Prime Video series Kill Jackie.
When she is not on set, she and Douglas now call New York home, having spent a decade based in Bermuda while their children were at school.
Their children's careers
Dylan and Carys are both now pursuing acting careers after graduating college. "They're plugging away," Zeta-Jones has said of their work. "You have to go with your passion."
Addressing the "nepo baby" label often applied to the children of famous parents, she said: "This horrific phrase nepo baby is horrible because these kids didn't ask to be born into this, they're finding their own way in life."
"But they love it, and they're good. Otherwise Michael and I would be the first to go, 'You know what? Maybe law school looks really good,'" she added.
Carys's stage debut
Carys, who graduated from Brown University last year, made her New York City theater debut in July, taking on a role in Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull. The production ran from June 20 to 27 at St. Lydia's in Brooklyn.
A viral video posted on Instagram captured moments from one of Carys's performances, ending as the cast took a bow for an applauding crowd. She was later seen signing autographs for attendees.
A friend of Carys told the Daily Mail in May that her famous parents are "so proud" of her achievement.
Speaking to People, Carys said she was happy to be working in an "informative arts space" after growing up doing theater without formally studying acting in school. In a 2018 interview with Town & Country, she spoke about growing up with famous parents, saying they do "a really good job of reality-checking" her, adding: "Look around you. The life you have is extraordinary."
