Jordan Karlesson
On paper, Michael Douglas has the most enviable life. A decorated career as an actor. A 22-years-and-still-going marriage to Catherine Zeta-Jones, one of the most revered actors in Hollywood. Oscars, Golden Globes, an Emmy — you name it, he’s got it.
Videos by Rare
But he also has an unbearable weight that, sadly, he shares with almost half of Americans: a family member or close friend who is an active or recovering drug addict.
Both Michael Douglas and his eldest son, Cameron, have spoken publicly about Cameron’s battle with drug abuse.
After appearing in a handful of forgettable films, authorities arrested Cameron Douglas multiple times on drug-related charges. Starting in 1999, they busted him for possession and/or distribution of cocaine, heroin, and meth.
Incidentally, in early 2000, Michael Douglas landed the lead role in Traffic, Steven Soderbergh’s crime drama about how the illegal drug trade’s tentacles grab hold of addicts, politicians, and law enforcement officials. In the film, Douglas’ character doesn’t know — at least initially — that his daughter is a drug user.
Traffic’s ensemble cast also featured Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, and a host of other reputed actors. The movie won four Academy Awards, with Soderbergh picking up the Best Director trophy.
A New Beginning for Cameron Douglas
Cameron Douglas eventually got out of prison in 2016 and was first spotted that same year with partner Viviane Thibes. Thibes is a yoga instructor from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
They have two children — Michael Douglas’ grandchildren — born in 2017 and 2020. In between the births of his children, Cameron wrote a memoir, Long Way Home, that hit bookshelves in October 2019.
Around the time of the book’s release, Michael Douglas expressed to People a sense of relief that a “huge storm has passed.”
“There were moments when hope dwindled… and then it’s just a train out of the station,” Michael Douglas said. “Life became a series of crises. I thought I was going to lose him.”
Cameron Douglas spoke with the same publication, saying he hoped his memoir would help save lives.
“I hated the wreckage I saw in my life because of drugs, but I just couldn’t stop,” he said. “It’s the sneaky power, the stranglehold that addiction has when you’re in the throes of it. When you get that far down the rabbit hole, there are a couple options: there’s prison and then there’s death.”
