Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas look loved up at Ant-man premiere - a timeline of their marriage

After nearly 25 years of marriage, one can potentially expect a little love to be lost or fewer public displays of affection, especially from those couples who are constantly in the public eye in Hollywood.

However, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas looked as loved-up as ever as they attended the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania premiere in London on Thursday night (16 February 2023).

The pair who have been married since 2000 and share two children couldn’t keep their eyes or hands off of one another on the red carpet at Waterloo’s BMI IMAX, arriving both arm in arm and holding hands.

Catherine looked sensational in a pastel blue gown while Michael donned a complimentary navy suit to match his wife’s colour palette, and created a united front ahead of Michael’s third instalment in the Marvel franchise.

While younger couples in Hollywood don’t tend to put on large displays of affection at events even if they are in their honeymoon phase, Catherine and Michael’s physical touch and body language, nay love language, proved the pair are still very much in love after 22 years.

Two decades of Catherine and Michael

The Oscar winning actors first met in 1998 when they were attending the Deauville Film Festival for their respective films Mask of Zorro (Zeta-Jones) and A Perfect Murder (Douglas), but the latter star initially struck out.

After seeing Catherine as Elena Montero in the Mask of Zorro, Michael contacted his publicist to set up another meeting with the actress in a bar before a nightcap, as he knew he was going to be the ‘father to her children’.

Following their meet-up, Michael sent roses to Catherine’s next filming location in Scotland, with the Wednesday star admitting in 2019, that she still has the card from the flowers almost 20 years later.

In 1999, Michael popped the question to Catherine while on holiday in Aspen celebrating New Years Eve, and within a few months the Hollywood couple announced they were expecting their first child.

Dylan Douglas was born in August 2000 in Los Angeles to which Michael announced, ‘we’re ecstatic,’ and the new baby boy attended his parent’s wedding in November of that year at the Plaza Hotel in New York City among a star-studded guest list including Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Brad Pitt.

A couple of years later, Catherine revealed that she had found out she was pregnant for a second time when filming Intolerable Cruelty. "I came home and told Michael. He let out a whoop. I never wanted Dylan to be an only child. Because of my amazing relationship with my siblings, I couldn't see him being the Little Lord Dylan on his own."

Paying tribute to Catherine’s Welsh roots, the couple’s second child, a daughter, was named Carys when she was born on Easter Sunday in 2003.

Catherine and Michael have put on a united front throughout their whole marriage as they have both opened up about different diagnoses in the past two decades, including Michael’s battle with throat cancer in 2010 and Catherine’s struggle with bipolar disorder in which she entered a mental health facility in 2011.

Although the pair looked strong, the battles took a toll on their marriage and Catherine and Michael took a short break in August 2013.

The separation was short-lived as in September of that year, Michael explained at the Emmy Awards that not only were they working on things, but also thanked "my wife Catherine" in his acceptance speech for Behind the Candelabra.

Fast forward to 2015, and the pair are back to being ‘stronger than ever’ as Michael said during an appearance on the Ellen Show:

"It can't be a one-way street," Douglas told DeGeneres. "But I'm crazy about her. And yeah, I think every couple has their difficult times. The only problem is, as you well know, we're all in the public eye, and it tends to get a little more exposed than most."

Both Catherine and Michael share the same birthday on 25 September and since their reunion they have shown glimpses of joint celebrations as well as their milestone marriage anniversaries.