Hollywood icon Kathleen Turner looks unrecognizable as she struggles with a cane during a rare public outing after reveling she once had a crush on former co-star Michael Douglas

Kathleen Turner looked unrecognizable during a rare public outing in Downtown Manhattan Monday.

Seen struggling to walk with a cane, the 69-year-old Romancing the Stone star appeared in good spirits despite her declining mobility as she went about her day. 

It comes five months removed from her last official public appearance, at a screening of Bradley Cooper’s Maestro also in Manhattan.

This time around, she wore a long, dark overcoat, black pants, and black sneakers, looking slightly worse for wear as she traversed Chinatown’s Canal Street.

Turner – whose full name is Mary Kathleen Turner – was a major movie star in the 1980s and 1990s, appearing alongside actors like Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. 

Back in 2021, the Undercover Blues star dished about a crush she once had on the former, back when the two graced the silver screen in not only Romancing the Stone,  but ‘The Jewel of the Nile’ as well. 

He is currently wed to Catherine Zeta-Jones, with whom he has two children.

‘Oh, I was yearning, babe, but he was still married [to first wife Diandra Luker] … although they were separated, and so I thought there was hope for me,’ Turner, then 66, told People at the time.

Then, this past year, she brought up the unrequited romance in an interview with Stellar Magazine, in which she admitted that while there was ‘sexual tension’ between the two, there was no chance a romance would work out.

She also suggested her fellow Romancing The Stone star may have seen her as competition, a few months before appearing at the Citymeals On Wheels’ 36th Annual Power Lunch at The Plaza Hotel in November.

She told the Irish lifestyle publication:  ‘Look, I love the man, but he is old-fashioned’ 

‘I give [his wife] Catherine [Zeta-Jones, his wife] all the credit in the world. She has done a great job with him.’

‘He would never, ever have supported having another star, at that point, in his life,’ she went on to claim. ‘And that would never have worked’.

Known for her work with Douglas and more films in the ’90s and 2000s, Turner now leaves in New York as a single woman.

She divorced longtime husband Jay Weiss – a local real estate tycoon – in 2007, 20 years after the pair gave birth to their only daughter, 36-year-old singer Rachel Ann Weiss.

The pair divorced after 23 years, but the War of the Roses star recently maintained ‘[Jay]’s still my best friend.’

A proud proponent of charities that help the disenfranchised, she has attended Citymeals On Wheels’ Annual Power Lunch for the past several years, and was there this past November. 

For the stroll through Chinatown, though, she for the first time sported a a cane, one that appeared she was still getting used to as she walked the sidewalk.

Appearing to struggle at points, she managed to stay upright, to the relief of her  countless adoring fans.

While still a fan of her ex and a now 79-year-old Douglas, Kathleen recently said revealed she was not so fond of 70s hunk Burt Reynolds, citing the ‘shocking’ sexism she was allegedly exposed to on the set of 1988’s Switching Channels.

 ‘Working with Burt was terrible,’ she said. ‘The first day Burt came in he made me cry. He said something about not taking second place to a woman.

‘His behavior was shocking. It never occurred to me that I wasn’t someone’s equal.’

A few years before, in 2019, she shared that she was ‘ageing rather well’, insisting that she doesn’t want to ‘be a Cher, where her face never changes or moves’ and would never get Botox or plastic surgery.

She went on to offer an anecdote involving Faye Dunaway, recalling how her fellow actress one gently advised he to have cosmetic work more than 20 years ago – advice she firmly rejected

‘Faye Dunaway once told me that if I did not start plastic surgery by the time I was 40 it would be too late,’ she said.

‘And I said, “Well fine, I won’t do it then.” At the moment I think I’m ageing rather well.’

She added that she was also grateful that she was only considered to be a sex symbol ‘for a while’, asserting, ‘I fought my way out of it very quickly. 

‘The power of my attractiveness for years was indeed an asset,’ she said.

‘But that did not control my choices at all.’

Known for her distinctive husky voice and Oscar nomination for her leading part in Peggy Sue Got Married, Turner has also starred in a slew of films post 2000s, while making guest appearances in shows like Friends and Law and Order.

She has also lent her voice to shows like The Simpsons and Rick and Morty, but will always be remembered for her string of hits in the 80s and 90s.