Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ teenage daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas, had no idea her father was famous when she was younger.
“I thought my dad was a pancake maker,” Zeta Douglas says in her Town & Country cover story — her first time on a national magazine cover. “I didn’t know he was an actor. Honestly.”
Zeta Douglas, 15, grew up in Bermuda, far away from the bright lights of New York and Los Angeles. When the family moved to New York, however, she was overwhelmed by the paparazzi.
“I hated it. I used to get really upset. They would jump on the subway and sit right in front of me. I was, like, 6. I was confused,” she shared. “That’s when I knew, ‘If this is going to be what it’s like, I need to focus on who I really am, and this is going to be something that’s just going to happen, and I can’t do anything about it.’”
Although critics will say her lineage is giving her easy access into Hollywood, where she’s trying to make it, Zeta Douglas claims that she isn’t receiving any handouts.
“When I was younger I didn’t like the idea of having his name attached, this kind of ‘Douglas Dynasty’ stuff. I think what bothers me the most is that people think I don’t work hard for it, that I don’t need to work hard for it. That anything I do gets handed to me. When, honestly, I feel like it’s the opposite,” she shared.
“I feel I need to constantly prove myself to people — that I am not just my parents’ daughter.”