Catherine Zeta-Jones says sexual harassment allegations against Michael Douglas 'profoundly devastated' the family
When Michael Douglas was accused of sexually harassing a former employee in January, wife Catherine Zeta-Jones immediately sat down with Douglas and their children, 18-year-old son Dylan and daughter Carys, 15.
“This woman came out of nowhere and accused my husband,” the Queen America star revealed in an interview with British newspaper the Times. “I had a very big conversation with him, with the kids in the room, and said, ‘Do you understand if more comes out…'”
She added that, as someone who publicly supports the #MeToo movement, she struggled internally after journalist Susan Braudy, who worked for Douglas’s production company in the late 1980s, said he mαsturbated in front of her at a work meeting in 1989 and harassed her in other ways.
“It was a really hard position for me and, in the height of it all, it was nasty,” Zeta-Jones said.
Douglas and Zeta-Jones married in 2000. They separated in 2012, but got back together in 2014.
The accusations against Douglas, she said, affected the entire family.
“My children and I were profoundly devastated by those allegations. And I was torn about where my absolute morals lie,” Zeta-Jones said.
After Douglas told his wife that he was innocent, she believed him. He publicly disputed the accusation before it was officially published, calling it “a complete lie.”
“There was nothing to back it up at all,” Zeta-Jones said. “For any accusation that comes out that isn’t backed up, that knocks the movement back 20 years.”
In the same interview, Zeta-Jones addressed the Harvey Weinstein scandal, in which more than 90 women accused the former media mogul of sexual misconduct, including rape in some cases. Weinstein has denied any nonconsensual sex.
“I’ve felt bad because you sensed things were going on but thought, ‘Well, it’s not happening to me,'” said Zeta-Jones, who starred in several films produced by Weinstein. “And that’s something you carry with you as a woman. I’m a woman’s woman and really feel that we should be protecting each other.”
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
