Michael Douglas' Rep Denies Oral Sex Link to Cancer

HPV causes warts and can result in cervical cancer. — The human papilloma virus. (Image credit: Dream Designs, Shutterstock)

Michael Douglas' representative now says the actor doesn't blame his throat cancer on oral sex.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper on Monday, Michael Douglas attributed his throat cancer to HPV virus contracted from oral sex. When asked whether he thought smoking and drinking might have caused the cancer, he said: "No. No. Ah, without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by something called HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus."

But his representative Allen Burry has since told several media outlets that Douglas never said that oral sex was the cause of his cancer. He said Douglas was discussing oral sex as one of the causes of throat cancer in general.

The Guardian said it firmly denies that it misrepresented Douglas' comments, and posted the transcript and audio file of the interview online.

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Bahar Gholipour is a staff reporter for Live Science covering neuroscience, odd medical cases and all things health. She holds a Master of Science degree in neuroscience from the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris, and has done graduate-level work in science journalism at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has worked as a research assistant at the Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives at ENS.