Michael Douglas and his camp have backpedaled away from the actor's reported admission over the weekend that his throat cancer was caused by oral sex.
The Guardian reported Sunday that Douglas, who battled stage four throat cancer back in 2010,
developed the disease from an STD.
In the British newspaper's article, Douglas was asked if, given his illness, he regretted his years of smoking and drinking.
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The actor was quoted as saying: "No. Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by
HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus… I did worry if the stress caused by my son's incarceration didn't help trigger it. But yeah, it's a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer."
The admission kicked off a debate about HPV its links to cancer, and a flurry of bad jokes on Twitter.
But now, the actor's publicist is denying that Douglas ever actually said that his own cancer was caused by oral sex.
"In a discussion with the newspaper, they talked about the causes of oral cancer, one of which was oral sex, which is noted and has been known for a while now," Douglas' spokesman Allen Burry told The Associated Press.
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The Guardian countered, even providing an audio clip of the interview and a verbatim transcript.
Douglas' cancer is now in remission after years of treatment. He is married to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.
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