Douglas said he was seeing around five women at the time, reportedly each in a different city, which let him keep a non-monogamous arrangement going. Zeta-Jones was direct about it. "If we are doing this, you need to clean your act up," he recalled her saying. He then phoned all five women and ended things. In the memoir he describes the choice she gave him: keep seeing other people, or stop and be with her.

The book came out on October 6 and covers what Douglas calls "B.C. -- Before Catherine." That includes a 1984 affair with his "Romancing the Stone" co-star Kathleen Turner, and a relationship with Jeanne Tripplehorn in 1992. Douglas pointed out that Zeta-Jones was seven years old when he made that film with Turner.

Douglas and Zeta-Jones, 57, met in August 1998 at the Deauville film festival in France, where Danny DeVito introduced them. They married in November 2000 at the Plaza Hotel in New York, with guests including Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson and Tom Hanks. They have two children, Dylan, 26, and Carys, 23. Douglas also has a son, Cameron, from his marriage to Diandra Luker, which began in 1977. The couple separated publicly in 2013 and reconciled in 2014.

In a separate interview on CNN's "Coming Up," Douglas said Zeta-Jones has no "veto power" over the book. He said he would not include anything he knew she would dislike, but that he kept editorial control. Zeta-Jones said on the "Today" show on October 8 that she did not plan to read it when tired, and Douglas later agreed with her on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Douglas called his wife "the one" and "magic," and said he was certain she was the person he was meant to be with. He credits their marriage to laughter and communication, and advises against using words like "never" or "always" in an argument. He has largely stepped back from acting to focus on family and memories, and said his father, Kirk Douglas, who wrote nine books, inspired him to turn to his own legacy.