Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas astonished fans at an event in Swansea this week when he confessed to “loving Butlins.” Worth an estimated £300 million, professing his love of all things Welsh, Michael, 82, says: "Most of you know, I have been married to Catherine [Zeta Jones] for 26 years. Let’s just say, I have been to Swansea and the Mumbles area a few times. It has always been wonderful."
Family Memories in Wales
Michael owns five luxury properties in the US, Canada and Mallorca and he and Catherine had a £1 million four-bedroom house built in Mumbles, Swansea - where she comes from - mainly for her parents Dai and Pat, in 2004. "I have so many memories over the years. My kids Dylan and Carys have spent several holidays with their grandparents, David [Dai] and Pat Jones," says Michael. "We used to love to go somewhere - this place they call Butlin's - and I did not realise it was a whole family affair when you go there. They had a wonderful time when they were there."
The star didn’t specify which Butlin’s they visited. But the closest Butlin’s on Barry Island, South Wales, closed in 1996, while Butlin’s Pwllheli was rebranded in 1987 and is now run by Haven Holidays as Hafan y Môr. They may have gone to Butlin’s Minehead Resort, a three hour drive from Swansea. Michael continues: "Also, when I first came here [Swansea] I ate seaweed. I could not believe it and I tried lava bread. Fish and chips you can’t beat over here and I love all the golf courses."
Wife's Apologies and Wrexham Reassurance
Catherine's parents were in the audience for Michael’s talk at the 3,500 capacity Swansea Building Society Arena. But his wife sent her apologies, as she was filming for a new movie, psychological thriller Cupid, in Mississippi - having just finished playing Morticia in the Netflix show Wednesday.
Enjoying rousing cheers from his audience, when he shouted "Go Swans" - the rallying cry for Swansea University Women's Rugby Football Club - Michael reassured fans that Catherine would not be betraying her South Wales roots by appearing in Ryan Reynolds' Netflix series, Welcome to Wrexham. The show documents the fortunes of the North Wales football team Wrexham F.C which Ryan co-owns with American actor and comic Rob McElhenney. Michael says: "Catherine wants you all to know no matter how many times they ask her, she is not going to be on the Wrexham series. That is out of the question."
Criticism of Trump and Upcoming Projects
The star, who won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (1987) found little to wax lyrical about when he turned his focus to his native America. In a blistering attack on US President Donald Trump, the star of 1995 movie The American President, who also played America's founding father, Benjamin Franklin, in the 2024 Apple TV+ series Franklin, says his research on the constitution for these roles means the present incumbent’s behaviour has enraged him. He says of Trump's actions: "It's just so kind of embarrassing the way he has [behaved] our President." And of the upcoming midterms in the US, he says: "It will be a massacre."
Currently conducting a global tour, promoting his memoir One Helluva Ride, Michael - who famously wooed Catherine when they first met at the Deauville American Film Festival in France in 1998, telling her on their first date, "I am going to be the father of your children" - also name checked some famous pals.
Speaking of his “wonderful friendship” with Jack Nicholson, 89, star of 1976 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which Michael produced and which won a best picture Oscar, he says: “He’s not working anymore. He’s well. He has disappeared. I know that. I still see him but he is fine. He is up there by his house and walking around in his slippers. It happens. He deserves it. I understand. He is a few years older than me, but I understand.”
He also compliments his great friend Glenn Close - his co-star in the 1987 film Fatal Attraction - who he is appearing with on Friday’s The Graham Norton Show at 10.40pm on BBC1. Despite the thriller spending eight consecutive weeks at number one at the box office in the US and 10 weeks at number one in the UK and being nominated for six Oscars in 1988, Glenn lost out on Best Actress to Cher, for her movie Moonstruck. But she will be awarded an honorary Oscar for her prolific 52-year acting career next year.
Michael says of Cher’s win: "I have nothing against Cher, but it was a shocking situation. Glenn is to get an honorary Oscar, as she has been nominated eight times. It was amazing to work with her on Fatal Attraction. That was some movie and Glenn even kept the knife from the movie and hung it up in her kitchen."
Meanwhile, Michael - who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2010, but was declared cancer free the following year - says his experience has made family more important than ever. He says of his cancer: “It made me a better actor and better human being. My career was no longer the most important thing in my life. My family was and that has lasted since the cancer, 16 years ago.”
But Michael is still planning future projects. Next, he will be playing former US President Ronald Reagan in the upcoming TV mini series Reagan & Gorbachev - a dramatic account of the 1986 Iceland summit, which proved a turning point in the Cold War. And he is close to finishing the new Oliver Stone movie, White Lies, with co-stars Josh Hartnett and Willem Dafoe.
Family, however, remains his primary concern. Waxing lyrical about Catherine, he recalls them bonding over a shared love of golf when they first met, saying: “The first thing we found out was we have the same birthday, 25 year age difference and I asked her if she liked golf. She said ‘I love golf.’ And that did it.”
But, despite their shared love for their children, for Wales, golf and acting, Michael says there is one major thing over which they will always disagree … Marmite. He says: “I don’t understand why people eat Marmite. My wife, I look at her [eating it] and I don’t know what we have in common. Oh my gosh, I am like, ‘how can you eat that?’”
Michael Douglas's memoir One Helluva Ride is out now, price £25.
