'He looked up at me and I knew': Michael Douglas opens up at the moment he found out he had cancer

By Sarah Fitzmaurice


Opening up: Michael Douglas has spoken about the moment he learned that he had cancer in a frank interview with his friend Alec Baldwin

He has rarely spoken about his gruelling battle with throat cancer or his remarkable recovery.

And for the first time Hollywood legend Michael Douglas has spoken about the very moment he learned that he had the life-threatening disease.

Speaking to friend Alec Baldwin in an interview for radio station WNYC Douglas,67, explained how after months of complaining about soreness in his throat it was the look of one specialist that made him realise he was seriously ill.

Douglas explained: ‘I found an ear nose and throat doctor in Montreal. He literally opened my mouth and took a tongue impression and I’ll never forget the moment when he looked up at me and looked back down and I knew.’

The actor, who is married to Welsh star Catherine Zeta Jones described how two days later results of a biopsy confirmed that he was suffering from cancer and it was at stage IV, the most advanced stage.

That was in August 2010, eight months after he had first complained about soreness in his throat.

Douglas described how he thought he injured his throat filming Wall Street Never Sleeps and said: ‘I thought maybe it was from tension, from the part where you haven’t placed your voice and how you are swallowing your words and you are speaking from the back of your throat.’

After seeing his GP a number of times as well as a number of specialists and several courses of antibiotics later the problem was still apparent.

Now and then: Michael appears the picture of health now compared to his frail appearance as he was undergoing treatment last October

Douglas told Baldwin: ‘I went away from the summer and I came back and I said (to his GP) “Listen something is going on here.”’

He also explained that at this point it was August more than half a year after he had first visited his doctor to complain of a problem.

Despite the advanced stage of the disease after undergoing a seven week course of radiation and chemotherapy Douglas was able to fight the disease but he acknowledged the problem should have been spotted sooner.


Family time: Following his recovery Michael said he is taking the year slowly and he is enjoying spending time with his family, seen here in New York with his daughter Carys

He remarked: ‘The reality is that if I had been checked back in Jan for head and neck cancer this could have all happened a lot early and the thing with cancer is you want to get it as early as you can.’

Douglas, who has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards, said the disease and the recovery process made him slow down.

He said: ‘I’m taking the rest of this year easy I’m enjoying my family.’


source:dailymail