The Untold Truth of Michael Douglas’ First Wife

Officially an American film producer and model, Diandra Luker has reached a new stage of infamy. Diandra divorced Michael Douglas in 2000, the man she married at the age of 19. Douglas is the recipient of no fewer than two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy, and no less than five Golden Globe accolades. He has 64 film credits from the classic “Basic Instinct” (1992) to the recent pop culture favorites “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and “Ant Man” (2015). The divorce itself was considered scandalous, but Diandra’s post-divorce actions raised even more eyebrows, especially after Douglas was diagnosed with stage IV throat cancer. Diandra’s prowess as a parent and her ethics have come under fire in the recent news. Whether this is correct is left to the discretion of the reader.

While celebrities crave the spotlight, it’s definitely not the coveted attention Diandra was seeking.

Early life and family

Luker has declined to give her exact date of birth, letting the public know more than the fact that she was born in 1956 in Mallorca, Spain, one of the larger islands of the Balearic group. The names of Luker’s parents are unknown, as are the identities of her siblings, if any. Diandra’s father was a Swiss-American diplomat and ambassador, whose work took him all over the world. Although his work paid him well and he was able to provide ample care for his family, the nomadic lifestyle did not offer much stability. By the time Diandra was old enough to attend high school, he realized that excessive travel could ultimately be detrimental to her education, so Diandra was sent to boarding schools to complete her education in a semblance of solidity.

Diandra Luker was a generous and charity youth heavily involved in organizations such as the Red Cross, which unbeknownst to her, would later serve her career well.

Course

As mentioned earlier, Diandra Luker went to boarding school to get a steady education, given her family’s nomadic lifestyle. The first boarding school which she attended was in Switzerland. Despite intending this to be a school where she would study consistently until graduation, Diandra moved to the US to complete her education, attending the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Georgetown, where she focused on enrolled at the age of nineteen. in 1975.

Diandra is fluent in Spanish to this day and needs no help with translation when she visits Spanish-speaking countries.

Career

Modeling and directing

Diandra Luker did not immediately start a career after graduating. She married young and received a lot of support from Michael Douglas, who was already famous at the time. Although she could now live a life of luxury, Luker was not content to sit back and waste her time. Diandra remained very active in her charitable work with the Red Cross, a position that saw her hired by the board of trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her job was not the most conventional endeavor of the time, as she was in charge of the museum’s Film and Television Office.

She performed this role extremely well and it was while working at the museum that she was approached to be a model. Ford models presented Diandra with a contract that gave her the chance to work among the stars herself, instead of remaining in her husband’s shadow. During her modeling career, she worked with some of the most famous names in fashion at the time. She modeled for Donna Karen, the American fashion designer behind the Donna Karen New York and DKNY labels, as well as Carolina Herrera, the Venezuelan fashion designer who has dressed several first ladies, including Michelle Obama and Laura Bush.

However, her work in the modeling industry was temporary as she soon found her interest lay elsewhere and branched out into the realm of directing which she had glimpsed during her time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1991, she documented the story of an artist, writer, and sculptor with an eye for the Old West in an episode of “American Masters.” She then directed “Off the Menu: The Last Day of Chasen’s” in 1997 as Diandra Douglas. Perhaps her most famous play was the movie “Broken Lines” which she produced and released in 2008.

Private life

Michael Douglas and Diandra Luker

Diandra’s early life followed the meandering pattern of a fairy tale, meeting her (apparent) true love at the age of nineteen and marrying soon after. Michael Douglas and Diandra Luker met at President Jimmy Carter’s swearing-in ceremony in the US, and what followed was a whirlwind romance, as after only two weeks of dating, Douglas proposed. The couple married in March 1977 and welcomed their son Cameron Douglas a year later.

However, their fairytale story didn’t last long and the couple separated in 1995. While they didn’t explicitly state what had torn the marriage apart, the media claims it was typical Hollywood career folly. What followed was an extremely messy divorce, which was not finalized until 2000 settlement of $45 million in addition to signing properties including their Santa Barbara Estate in California. At that stage, Douglas was rumored to have done everything in his power to escape the marriage so he could marry actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, 25 years his junior.

Luker was criticized by the media for her alleged divorce greed. Her parenting skills were also called into question when their son Cameron Douglas served a seven-year sentence for heroin and other drug-related crimes.

? Happy birthday #Michael Douglas!
What are your favorite roles he’s played?
We want to know! pic.twitter.com/oUIpC5BuCU

— Film Inquiry (@FilmInquiry) September 25, 2019

She turned the heat up even further when she filed another lawsuit with Douglas, demanding a cut in his earnings for “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” This followed the tail end of Douglas’ cancer diagnosis. Initially, Luker considered dropping the claims, but Douglas’ lawyers insisted they go ahead. Luker experienced several financial pitfalls – not the least of which was her former business manager, Kenneth Starr, who pleaded guilty to fraud, fell prey to Bernie Madoff’s pyramid scheme, and the sale of the Santa Barbara estate fell through. After this series of financial setbacks, withdrawing her claims became an impossible option in her eyes.

Other relationships and children

Diandra Luker dated business mogul, Zach Hampton Bacon III. After accepting his proposal, Luker refused to marry unless he paid Douglas’s alimony which she would lose. The two remained engaged and had two sons – Hudson and Hawk via a surrogate in 2004, but their relationship fell apart soon after. Luker adopted her daughter Imira Sestaca from Kazakhstan, over whom she would retain full custody, unlike the twins who are under joint custody. Luker had a brief relationship with Michael Klein in 2005, which lasted no more than a few months.

These days, Diandra is incredibly supportive of all of her kids, including Cameron who is one book about his experiences in prison.

Both she and Douglas plan to campaign with the contents of their son’s book to gain more mental support for those in the prison system. She enjoys spending her summers with her children in a co-owned house on the island of her childhood, where they are free to experience nature and nurture their bilingual heritage. She is not at all conservative in expressing her anti-Trump sentiments by sticking a picture of his face on a scarecrow in the gardens of her island home.

Appearances

Although she wasn’t the young and carefree model she used to be, Diandra Luker has made sure to look good and take good care of her body. While she’s not ashamed of going a little gray, Luker tends to dye her hair a darker shade of brown, very different from the light brown of her youth.

She has brown eyes and a slim figure. She is reported to be 1071 m tall and weighs 58 kg. Her Swiss American ancestry from her father and Italian from her mother are evident in her features and have seen her age over time.

Net worth and salary

Diandra has an impressive net worth of $50 million – the $45 million divorce settlement is making an impact. This pales in comparison to Michael Douglas’s current wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, $105 million. However, Luker has more than enough to live in luxury and comfort with minimal financial stress, and can provide the best for her children. Luker has no reported source of income, so it makes sense to assume she lives on her divorce alimony.