Catherine Zeta-Jones has addressed the sexual misconduct allegations made by a former employee about her husband Michael Douglas.
Michael recently revealed to Deadline.com that a woman who used to work for him has accused the actor of pleasuring himself in front of her more than three decades ago. He denied the claims, telling the website he wanted to "get ahead" of the story by going public himself.
At a Television Critics Association event in the U.S. on Sunday (14Jan18), Catherine, 48, addressed the allegations against her 73-year-old superstar spouse.
"My reaction was that as two people who have been in this business - him longer than me - was that we support Me Too (the campaign encouraging victims to speak out about misconduct) and the movement more than anybody, anybody - me as a woman, him as a man,” she told Entertainment Tonight.
“And there was no other way than to be preemptive in a story that had to be watched. He did a statement, he did it. I think it's very clear the way that he stands. I cannot elaborate on something that's so very personal to him."
Catherine has also thrown her support behind Time’s Up, a movement spearheaded by women in the entertainment industry in response to the sexual harassment claims made against Harvey Weinstein. Like many other stars, the Welsh actress wore black to the recent Golden Globe Awards, and says she’s fully supportive of women coming forward with stories of sexual harassment and assault.
"We're seeing changes that have taken many years to even be talked about," she said. "It's an amazing time for women, and I really want women to remember how strong we are in numbers. This is going to die down. This is not going to be at the forefront of everyone's mind forever and ever and we're going to have to be kind to each other. We can't ask everyone else to be kind to us unless we're kind to each other."
Michael has vehemently denied masturbating in front of his employee, telling Deadline: "I pride myself on my reputation in this business... I'm bewildered why, after 32 years, this is coming out, now.
"The part that hurt the worst is having to share something like this to your wife and your children. My kids are really upset, have to go to school worrying this is going to be in some article about me, being a sexual harasser. They're scared and very uncomfortable."
