Actor Michael Douglas says he took his wife and actress Catherine Zeta-Jones for granted before they split last year. But he says he has learnt from this. The couple are together again.

The 69-year-old actor temporarily split from the 44-year-old actress last August, but he insists he's now learnt from his past "mistakes" and has re-evaluated his relationship, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"When you are younger you care what other people think. And you take the person closest to you for granted. You waste a lot of energy on strangers to make a good impression. When you're older you focus that energy on the people closest to you, on your family. And you're courteous," The Sun newspaper quoted him as saying.

Douglas has son Dylan and daughter Carys with Zeta-Jones.