Michael Douglas cancer oral sex claim: transcript and audio

On Monday 3 June, the Guardian published an interview with the actor Michael Douglas in which he said that his cancer was "caused by HPV (human papillomavirus), which actually comes from cunnilingus".

Allen Burry, a spokesman for the actor, has since denied that Douglas said that oral sex was the cause of his own cancer, but was merely one of the many causes of oral cancer. "In a discussion with the newspaper," the Associated Press quotes Burry as saying, "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."

The Guardian firmly denies this charge of misrepresentation. Mr Burry was not present at the Guardian's interview with Michael Douglas; the only two people present were Mr Douglas and the Guardian writer, Xan Brooks. Here is the audio file of the relevant part of the interview, along with a verbatim transcript of that section.

Xan Brooks: Do you feel, in hindsight, that you overloaded your system? Overloaded your system with drugs, smoking, drink?

Michael Douglas: No. No. Ah, without getting too specific, this particular cancer is caused by something called HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus.