Hollywood icon Michael Douglas admitted to his past marriage mistakes and recognizes he was generally too absent.

The 72-year-old actor looked back at his first marriage to ex-wife Diandra Luker – whom he split from in the year 2000 – and says he was not as close to the film producer during their time together. On the other hand, Douglas compared his feelings to current wife Catherine Zeta Jones and can see a noticeable difference.

He told The Guardian newspaper: “I was too absent from my first marriage. Second time round, I’m so much more hands-on. By the time Dylan and then Carys were born, I was well ensconced in my career.

They both want to be actors and Catherine and I have seen enough of them on stage to know they have got it. You’ll be hearing from another generation of Douglases. I’ve no doubt about it.”

Douglas – who has a 37-year-old son with his former wife – advised against staying in an unhappy marriage for the sake of young children.

He shared: “A lot of marriages hang on too long for the sake of the children. But, if you start asking questions when they are older, those children will often tell you that you could have cut the tension with a knife when their parents were together and that divorce was rather like letting the air out of a balloon.”

Meanwhile, the star had recently admitted it took some time to build up confidence in his acting career, as he feared being compared unfavorably to his father, Kirk Douglas.

He confessed: “I lacked confidence I would say. It took me a while to have a sense of security. I mean clearly when you have a father like Kirk, he was a big figure to look up to and think, ‘wow how do you be the man that he is?’

But I’m not complaining you know, everybody has got their strengths and weaknesses and you just try to overcome those situations and improve your lot in life.”