CATHERINE Zeta Jones has said she could not stand the thought of seeing her husband undergoing treatment for his throat cancer.

The Swansea star was speaking as Michael Douglas appeared on David Letterman's Late Show this week, talking frankly about his cancer battle.

She said she was troubled by the idea of Michael having chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.

She said: "I know maybe I should be stronger, but emotionally I just don't want to see that.

"The hardest part is seeing his fatigue, because Michael is never tired."

Zeta Jones also said she was furious that after a battery of tests earlier this summer, her husband's illness was dismissed by doctors as simply a sore throat.

Diagnosed only three weeks ago, Michael was informed he had advanced stage-four throat cancer, which would mean gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.

He told David Letterman: "It's stage four which is so intense, so they've got to go at it.

"You'd like to be down at stage one, but it is not. The big thing you're always worried about is, is it spreading?

"I am head and neck, nothing's gone down, and so the expectations are good. The percentages are very good.

"I would hate to say, but right now it looks like it should be 80 per cent and with certain hospitals and everything, it does improve."

But Catherine told US People Magazine: "It makes me furious they didn't detect it earlier.

"He sought every option and nothing was found."

Michael, however, was more philosophical, telling People magazine: "Without having to blame anybody, these things sometimes don't show up."

He added that after facing personal adversity — referring to the drug offences committed by his son Cameron and his subsequent jailing — he and his wife had enjoyed themselves after she finished her run in A Little Night Music, the Broadway musical.

They spent some time on Catherine's home soil, visiting the Children's Hospital for Wales, attending a family party in Sketty and spending time with Catherine's parents Pat and Dai Jones in Mumbles.

He said it was when they returned to America at the end of July, following further trips to St Petersburg in Russia, and Spain, that a biopsy was taken from his throat and the cancer was identified.

He said: "It hurts, it comes and goes in waves. It knocks you out really hard. I'm in the first week of radiation therapy and chemo. It's an eight-week struggle. The radiation burns your mouth and you can find it difficult to swallow."

Michael told Letterman that Catherine was looking after their children, Carys, 7, and Dylan, 10, in Bermuda, while he received his treatment in New York.

Michael, whose latest blockbuster Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is due to be released later this month, talked on the show about Hurricane Earl which was currently threatening Bermuda, prompting Letterman to joke: "Make sure the family's right in the path . . . good thinking!"

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