Michael Douglas Made This Bold Proposal to Catherine Zeta-Jones on Their First Date

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones have a Hollywood romance for the ages, with both parties describing being instantly smitten with each other when they met. Twenty years after their 2000 wedding, Douglas is opening up about how this couple came to be, sending a message of love to 51-year-old bride Zeta-Jones and detailing their highly surprising first date — which starts with Douglas’ assistant tracking her down after a Zorro screening and ends with Douglas telling Zeta-Jones he wants to have babies with her. Unconventional? You betcha. But love is love, and these two are the real deal.

“Happy 20th Anniversary my darling!” Douglas wrote on Instagram for the big day, sharing a video where he describes how he first came to meet his wife in voice-over.

“I’m at a screening in Hollywood, somebody’s house and they’re showing Zorro and I’m watching this movie and I go, ‘wow who is this girl she’s incredible,'” Douglas, 76, recalls. A month later, he’s at a film festival and sees that Zorro is showing there the next day.

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“I asked my assistant, can you find out if Catherine Zeta-Jones is going to be here at the festival and if she’s coming alone,” Douglas explains — and upon finding out she was, he invites her to have a drink with him at the hotel bar.

“I have a drink with her and it was everything I hoped for,” he recounts. “After dinner, she’s got to go do her show her press tour and I said, ‘well, I’ll be back at the bar if you want to come stop by when you’re done, I’d love to see you.’ And sure enough — I must have been batting one thousand because after the movie, I’m sitting at the bar and like Lawrence of Arabia this mirage comes through the lobby and it’s Catherine Zeta Jones.”

Douglas, clearly starry-eyed at this point, admits it didn’t take long for him to put his card on the table.

“We sit down and we have a little nightcap and I probably made a big mistake, but I looked at her and I said, ‘I just want to tell you I’m going to be the father of your children,'” he says. “And she looked at me and said, ‘I’ve heard a lot about you. I guess it’s all true. Good night.'”

With a comeback that cool, we’re not surprised that Douglas thought he had “completely blown it” after that — but clearly, the actress was charmed, perhaps in spite of herself. 20 years later, she’s Douglas’ biggest fan (and sure enough, the mother of his kids).

Before you go, click here to see celebrity couples with significant age differences.

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