Catherine Zeta-Jones doesn’t believe her real estate portfolio can be considered “excessive.”
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, the 55-year-old actress spoke about the many properties she owns with her husband, Michael Douglas, including two in New York, one in Canada and one in Spain.
“I know it sounds very jet-set, and I love to surround myself with beauty, but it’s not excessive, it’s very comfortable,” she told the outlet.
Michael and Zeta-Jones married in a lavish New York ceremony in 2000, and had two children; son Dylan, 25, and daughter, Carys, 22.
After getting married, the couple moved away from the busy streets of New York, choosing to make Bermuda their home base.
The actress attributes the move to her dislike of “the city in the summertime,” explaining that it’s “too hot,” later joking she didn’t enjoy the Hamptons either because it was “the same people in shorts” and that “the social calendar is exhausting.”
“So Michael took me to Bermuda because his mother was Bermudian and I thought, ‘I love this,’” she explained. “It’s an hour and a half in a plane. It’s a British colony, there were pictures of the Queen when I went to the bank. So we bought a house there and stayed for ten years.”
The actress also admitted to having a passion for clothing and accessories, telling the outlet she goes “to all the vintage stores in Paris” and invests in pieces “that you are probably never going to wear, like a gorgeous cape.”
Her love of all things fashion has been passed down to her daughter, who Zeta-Jones notes “loves my closet.”
“I get excited about evening dresses. For me, a pair of jeans is a pair of jeans. Spending £200 on a white T-shirt? Nah. But when it comes to couture, beautiful beading, the artistry … I love the theatre of fashion,” she said. ” I have probably the biggest Fendi Baguette bag collection, and she’s [Carys] just found more in my mum’s house. I’ve got everything from denim to pearl to sequins. Carla Fendi used to give them to me all the time, right when they were hot potatoes.”
At the time of their marriage, Zeta-Jones had just starred in her breakthrough role in the 1998 movie, “The Mask of Zorro,” while Douglas was already known for his roles in the films “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Wall Street,” the latter of which earned him an Academy Award for best actor.
Zeta-Jones would go on to win an Academy Award as well, for her supporting role as Velma Kelly in “Chicago.” She and Michael keep their Oscars in different homes.
“Mine is in the country house in New York, Michael’s is in the apartment in New York,” she said. “We keep them apart, just in case, you know, there isn’t like hanky-panky going on there.”
While Michael’s big break didn’t come until he starred in the series “The Streets of San Francisco” in the early 1970s, he comes from a famous family, his father being the three-time Academy Award-nominated actor, Kirk Douglas, most known for his role in the 1960 film, “Spartacus.”
Kirk died in February 2020 at the age of 103.
“He was a flirty little thing,” Zeta-Jones said. “He was wonderful and he was very fond of me, as I was of him. I miss him. They [Kirk and his wife, Anne] left a philanthropic legacy that was way beyond movies.”
Zeta-Jones is currently starring as Morticia Addams in the popular Netflix series, “Wednesday.”
