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Michael Douglas has revealed that, early in his romance with Catherine Zeta-Jones, he had to compete with basketball legend Kobe Bryant for the attention of his future wife. The 82-year-old actor shared the surprising details of his personal life in his new memoir, One Helluva Ride.

Douglas met the 57-year-old Zeta-Jones in 1998 at the American Film Festival in Deauville, France. However, their relationship initially unfolded at a distance: the actor lived in New York, while the actress was based in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

As it turned out, Zeta-Jones’s home was located just down the hill from Bryant’s mansion. At the time, the basketball star was 20 years old and had already been playing for the Los Angeles Lakers for two years.

“Apparently, Kobe was constantly finding reasons to drop by Catherine’s house. I don’t know how many times he ‘lost his dog,’ but it happened very often!” Douglas writes in his book.

In January 2020, following Bryant’s tragic death in a helicopter crash, Zeta-Jones fondly recalled their days as neighbors in an Instagram post.

“We met on the day he moved in, thanks to his dog, who started wandering into my garden and kept doing so,” the actress recalled.

According to Zeta-Jones, they were both “young and ambitious.” From her home, she could see Bryant’s private basketball court and watch the talent and dedication he brought to his training sessions.

In 1999, the basketball star met Vanessa Laine, who would later become his wife. They married in 2001 and raised four daughters together.

Nine Months of Waiting and Five Other Women

In his memoir, Douglas also opens up about the early stages of his relationship with Zeta-Jones. The actress frequently traveled away from Los Angeles for work, filming Entrapment with Sean Connery and The Jackal with John Cusack during that period.

“I knew the routine well,” the actor recalls. According to Douglas, they began speaking regularly on the phone until they finally had the opportunity to meet in person again.

Douglas, long known in Hollywood for his reputation as a womanizer, claims that Catherine made him wait nine months before agreeing to become intimate with him.

The actor insists he was prepared not to rush things and to give them both as much time as they needed. However, during the early stages of their courtship, he continued dating five other women who lived in different cities.

Their first romantic getaway took place when Douglas invited the actress to his country home in Mallorca. He offered her a separate bedroom and also invited Miami Heat owner Pat Riley and his wife. The actor hoped that spending time with the couple would show Catherine that he was capable of maintaining a normal, stable relationship.

“I hoped this would help dispel my ‘reputation,’ which Catherine had mentioned on the very first night we met. I also thought having my dear friends around would help her feel more comfortable. As it turned out, I was right,” Douglas writes.

Once their relationship became more serious, Zeta-Jones insisted on monogamy. According to the actor, he had to make “five quick phone calls” to end his other romances.

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