Michael Douglas once told Catherine Zeta-Jones on their first date that he would be the father of her children. She replied no and walked away. That first impression did not last, and the two have now been married for more than two decades, spending much of that time at S’Estaca, a 19th-century estate on the northwest coast of Mallorca that Douglas purchased in 1990. The estate was built in 1867 by Archduke Ludwig Salvador of Austria, who developed the cliffside property with terraces and olive groves overlooking the Mediterranean.
Douglas paid $3. 5 million for it and later spent between five and six million euros renovating the seven buildings into a home with ten bedrooms, a wine cellar, a vineyard, a gym, a spa, and private access to the sea. But the road to that quiet life ran through years of intense fame, complications, and a health crisis that nearly ended everything. Douglas was born on September 25, 1944, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of screen legend Kirk Douglas.
After studying drama at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he broke through on television in the early 1970s. His greatest early success came behind the camera when he produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which won all five major Academy Awards in 1975. He then became a major movie star with films such as Romancing the Stone, Wall Street, Fatal Attraction, and Basic Instinct. His role as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1988.
His first marriage to Diandra Luker lasted 23 years and ended in a divorce estimated to have cost him around $45 million. The settlement included shared custody of S’Estaca, with each spouse entitled to six months at the property per year, an arrangement he later described as uncomfortable for everyone involved. Zeta-Jones was born on September 25, 1969, in Swansea, Wales, the daughter of a sweet factory owner and a seamstress. She won a national tap dancing competition at age 11, left school at 15 to join a touring production, and made her West End debut by the age of 17.
After becoming a well-known television figure in Britain, she was cast in The Mask of Zorro after director Martin Campbell was urged by Steven Spielberg to consider her. Douglas first saw the film at a private screening three weeks before the Deauville Film Festival in 1998. When he arrived at the festival, he asked his assistant whether Zeta-Jones was attending and whether she might have a drink with him. She agreed, and it was during that drink that he made his unusually direct prediction about the future father of her children.
She dismissed him at the time, and he spent the rest of the festival hoping for another chance. The two became engaged on New Year’s Eve 1999 and married at the Plaza Hotel in New York on November 18, 2000. Their son Dylan had been born in August of that year, and their daughter Carys followed in April 2003. They also share the same birthday, September 25, exactly 25 years apart.
The marriage faced a significant test in 2013, when the couple announced a trial separation. They did not divorce and have not separated publicly since. In 2010, Douglas was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer, later clarified as tongue cancer, after symptoms had been misdiagnosed for nearly a year. The correct diagnosis was made by a doctor in Montreal after American specialists missed it.
He underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation, lost 32 pounds, and by January 2011 the tumor was gone. He later said his cancer made him a free man. After buying out his former wife’s share, S’Estaca became fully his again. The property spans 250 acres and has hosted guests including Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Zeta-Jones has taken an active role in shaping the estate’s gardens, terraces, and atmosphere. The vineyard produces wine served at dinner on the terrace, and their children and grandchildren visit regularly. Both have remained active in public life. Douglas has worked with the United Nations as a messenger of peace since 1998, focusing on nuclear disarmament, and has spoken publicly about oral cancer awareness.
He also appeared as Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ series Franklin. Zeta-Jones was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2010 and received the Freedom of the City of Swansea in 2019. She has been involved with children’s causes in Wales and internationally, including serving as an ambassador for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Douglas, now 80, has said that Mallorca is where he fell in love with his wife and that the island will always be part of their lives.
The couple remains one of Hollywood’s most durable partnerships, and their home on the Mediterranean continues to serve as the still center of a life built at full speed.
