14 DAY TRIAL // Actor Michael Douglas taped an appearance on Oprah Winfrey the other day, in which he opens up about his wife’s mental issues and how she’s doing now, after she’s received treatment, as the video below will confirm.
Catherine Zeta Jones has been suffering from Bipolar disorder II for years and, because of the stress of the past year, her condition has gotten worse recently, so she checked in a specialized facility to get help.
The National Enquirer first broke the news – but with a story that claimed that the actress was going off the rails completely, when she was only severely depressed, Michael says.
In this sense, the media “outed” Catherine, in that it forced her to speak out about her problem when she would have probably liked to continue to keep it a personal matter.
“I must say, Catherine's being quite open about it because she was outed, you know,” Douglas tells Oprah.
Indeed, word that Catherine was getting help as an in-patient was in print hours after she checked in, and Michael believes someone from the clinic sold the story to the tabloid.
“She went to go get some help and some other patient probably in there said, ‘Hey, you won’t believe who’s in here now.’ And, so, once that happens, I think she felt [it] best to kind of get out the story,” Michael explains.
He also says that 2010 was a very hard year for them as a family. For Catherine, it was even worse, because she’s not in the habit of speaking about her emotions and feelings, she just keeps everything bottled in.
“My oldest son is in federal prison, my ex-wife is suing me, and I got cancer. It’s kind of hard for the wife to say, ‘I’m depressed’,” Michael says on Oprah.
He also talks about cancer and his recovery: so far, everything is looking good.
“This particular type of cancer has a good record of not coming back. But it can. So for the first year I’ve got to go every month and get checked in every three months. I’m cool,” the actor explains.