Michael Douglas became a later in life father when his daughter Carys was born in 2003. That caused fellow parents at her 2021 high school graduation to mistake him for his child’s grandfather!

The 76-year-old acting icon revealed on the Tuesday, June 8, episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show that he was getting plenty of congratulations at her May 21 commencement ceremony, with people asking how proud he was of his granddaughter’s big day. Only he’s the father of the 18-year-old new grad.

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“It was so wonderful, I’m so proud of her. But I gotta tell you, Kelly, it’s a little rough when you’re going out the doors and the other parents are saying, ‘Oh congratulations, you must be so proud of your granddaughter,'” he revealed with a laugh.

Rather than try to correct people and tell them that he was Carys’ dad, Michael decided to just go with it. “I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, man. Yeah ok. I’m not gonna take it personal, they’re just trying to be nice.”

Now that Carys is a high school graduate and off to college in the fall, Michael and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones are going to be empty nesters. Their 20-year-old son Dylan is a student at the prestigious Brown University in Rhode Island.

‘It’s scary. It really is. You look at each other and go, ‘Well, it’s just you and me, babe,” Michael joked about how for the first time in 18 years they won’t have children living with them.

“There is that moment when they’re out of the house and they’re gone. And you look at each other and in the back of your mind I’m thinking ‘What are we going to talk about?'” The Komisky Method actor explained. “As a marriage, so much of your time revolves around talking about your kids. What are they doing, how they are doing, this and that. It’s an easy conversation.”

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But Michael isn’t worried about how he and his gorgeous 51-year-old actress wife will fare without their children under the same roof. “I think we’re going to do really well. We’ve got our suitcases packed, the COVID is getting down. We’re looking to do a lot of traveling in the next few years. I’m going to be over here in Europe working for the next year. So we’ll be ok,” he said with a smile. Michael is currently in England shooting Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which will hit theaters in 2023.