LONDON, Jan 17 — Catherine Zeta-Jones has slammed the sexual misconduct allegations levelled against her husband Michael Douglas as "erroneous and false”.

Last week, the 73-year-old actor took the unprecedented step of denying he once performed a sex act in front of a female employee 32 year ago to pre-empt an article that had not yet been published.

"This is a complete lie, fabrication, no truth to it whatsoever,” he said at the time, adding that his "head was reeling.”

He added: "I’m going to continue the way I’ve always treated women, as equals and my peers. Working closely with them. I would hope that as a cautionary tale, we will be careful about accusing, and being accused.”

Now, Zeta-Jones has broken her silence to People magazine, telling the US publication that she found the accusations "very, very upsetting”.

She was quoted as saying: "It was very, very upsetting. Anything like that, that is erroneous and false, would take anyone by surprise.

"I’m glad that the non-story was put straight. It was a looming accusation and I am very happy that Michael did a pre-emptive move.

"This was something that supposedly happened 30-odd years ago and was unfounded, so Michael needed to make that stance.”

The 48-year-old actress went on to stress that both she and her husband were keen supporters of the #MeToo movement that aims to stamp out all sexual abuse and harassment in Hollywood.

She explained: "There’s nobody who supports the #MeToo movement more than me and my husband.”