Michael Douglas’ emotional confession about famous family member

Michael Douglas remembers his father, the iconic one Kirk Douglas – and keeping it candid. The star talked about how his relationship with his father changed over time – a gradual improvement over time.

“It was different phases. It wasn’t particularly good at first, probably just the amount of work he was doing,” he admitted of Kirk in an interview with Chris Wallace, on MAX’s Who’s talking to Chris Wallace?.

“He…career definitely came before family,” Michael explained, before admitting that their relationship definitely changed as they got older.

Michael revealed: “But then in the sort of third act of his career, I think the second act, he was a little bit stunned that I was having some degree of success.”

“It’s a reminder to me now that I’m in my third act that we can change,” he said. “And we were very close. So I’m happy to say that by the time he took his life and before that, over the last fifteen, twenty years, it was a joy to be with him.”

Kirk passed away in 2020 at the age of 103, with Michael announcing his death in a glowing tribute on Instagram.

“It is with immense sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas has left us today at the age of 103,” he wrote.

“To the world he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of cinema who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.

“But to me and my brothers Joel and Peter he was just a father, to Catherine a wonderful father-in-law, to his grandchildren and great-grandchild their loving grandfather, and to his wife Anne a wonderful husband,” he continued.

The Wall Street The actor continued to discuss his father’s ‘well-lived’ life and significant legacy in film as an actor and filmmaker, adding that he was also a noted philanthropist.

But even more poignantly, Michael added a personal touch to the sad announcement: “Let me end with the words I told him on his last birthday that will always remain true. ‘Daddy – I love you so much and I’m so proud to be your son’.”

Speaking to Chris, the Gordon Gekko actor added that it might be difficult to start the same career as his father, while he didn’t measure his own success against the Hollywood titan, but other people did.

“It wasn’t necessarily me doing it, but you worked with people (and) they said, ‘It’s just like your dad. Your dad does that, it’s just really like your dad.’ And of course we are in a career where you try to create your own identity.”

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael have spoken about their own children’s desire to pursue acting, as 2021 revealed Carys and Dylan wanted to follow in their parents’ footsteps.

“Michael has talked about what it’s like to be ‘the daughter of’ in the same industry, which I think is the same when you’re in business,” Catherine told Drew Barrymore.

“If you are successful in business, it is not an easy path. In fact, you have to prove yourself more,” she said, adding, “Even with that deterrent, my kids say, ‘No, sorry, we still want to do it.’ It'”.