CATHERINE Zeta-Jones has described her anger and frustration that her husband Michael Douglas’s throat cancer – which he revealed this week is at an advanced stage – went undiagnosed for so long.
Welsh-born actor Zeta-Jones said that the 65-year-old star had symptoms for months and had seen several specialists before a biopsy confirmed cancer three weeks ago.
“It makes me furious they didn’t detect it earlier,’ said Zeta-Jones, 40. “He sought every option and nothing was found.” Her comments in People magazine came after Douglas appeared on David Letterman’s talk show and revealed that his cancer was advanced “stage four”. “It’s a stage four, which is intense, and they gotta go at it,” he said.
Douglas said he had been given an 80 per cent chance of survival. He has just begun treatment including radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The first symptom, he said, was an extremely sore throat at the start of the summer.
Zeta-Jones said she could not bear to see her husband hooked up to a drip or receiving treatment. “I know maybe I should be stronger, but emotionally I just don’t want to see that,” she said. “But I’m right there when he comes home.”
The couple have been open about the diagnosis with their children, Dylan, 10, and Carys, 7. Zeta-Jones said that she had her “emotional moments” but “what’s the use of me crying around the house?”
Douglas told People that his cancer battle was another blow in “a pretty intense year”, following his oldest son Cameron’s five-year prison sentence for drug dealing and possession, and a law suit filed by his former wife Diandra demanding 50 per cent of his earnings from the sequel to Wall Street Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.
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