Michael Douglas Hints He Took Catherine Zeta-Jones For 'Granted'

Michael Douglas now admits he took wife Catherine Zeta-Jones “for granted,” the British news site The Sun reports. But the actor says he has learned from his mistakes.

“First you have to admit that you made a mistake, then dealing with it is easy,” Douglas, 69, said. “Of course it’s important to make mistakes, as long as you grow from them.”

The actor spoke to the news site at an event where close friend Jane Fonda was honored. Zeta-Jones accompanied her husband to the New York venue.

“When you’re older you focus that energy on the people closest to you, on your family,” he said, during a speech. Apparently hinting at his past marital problems, he said he used to take the person “closest to [him] for granted.”

One major mistake might be implying your wife’s nether regions gave you a life-threatening illness.

The screen actor shocked thousands when he claimed oral sex gave him cancer. The two-time Oscar-winner said in an interview in June 2013 he contacted human papillomavirus through cunnilingus. He later backpedaled and essentially said that wasn’t what he meant, but two months later it was reported he and he wife would be taking a “break.”

Since then it was reported Douglas was trying to win Zeta-Jones back, and one story even said he would make pancakes every day. It seems whatever he did worked, and Douglas has been able to reunite with the Oscar-winner.

Zeta-Jones has remained quiet in public about her 2013 break from her husband and his oral sex-cancer comment. The “Chicago” actress, 44, is rumored to appear in “Vivaldi,” a biopic about baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi’s early life.

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzarella