Zeta-Jones furious at Michael Douglas’s doctors

Catherine Zeta-Jones has spoken for the first time about Michael Douglas's throat cancer, hitting out at doctors who she claims failed to diagnose her husband’s tumour.
 
Zeta-Jones said in a magazine interview that Douglas, the star of Wall Street and Fatal Attraction, had complained a number of times about pain in his ears and throat. But the walnut-sized growth under his tongue was only discovered three weeks ago, his wife said.
 
"It makes me furious they didn't detect it earlier," Zeta-Jones told People magazine, which broke the news of Douglas's cancer last month. "He sought every option and nothing was found."
 
Zeta-Jones, who has two children with 65-year-old Douglas, said that the "hardest part" of the last few weeks had been seeing her husband lose his strength as a result of his treatment. "Michael is never tired".
 
Douglas has just completed his first week of an intensive eight-week course of chemotherapy and radiation. On Tuesday night he went on US television to talk about his disease. Looking tired but dapper in a white suit and pink shirt, Douglas told chat show host David Letterman that his cancer is at 'stage four' after spreading from the original tumour.
 
Despite making this harder to beat and far more dangerous, doctors have given the Oscar-winning actor an 80 per cent change of survival. "I'm treating this as a curable disease," he told Letterman. "It's a fight. I'll beat this."
 
Douglas admitted that this type of cancer is often caused by smoking and alcohol but also argued that the tumour had been "stress-related" after what had been "a long year".
 
In April his eldest son, Cameron, was jailed for five years for drug dealing. In June his ex-wife, Diandra, filed a lawsuit claiming she was entitled to half of his earnings from his forthcoming Wall Street sequel, Money Never Sleeps.
 
Douglas was more sanguine than Zeta-Jones about the delay in his diagnosis. "These things sometimes just don't show up." Asked by Letterman if the doctors had found the cancer early enough, he said: "I sure as shit hope so." ·