Michael Douglas made headlines when he made a standout comment regarding his throat cancer to the British newspaper The Guardian.

After the newspaper published the article on June 2, which said that the 68-year-old actor revealed he contracted the cancer from oral sex, one of his reps denied the comment.

His publicist Allen Burry also told New York Daily News that the actor "wants to make it very clear he never said that was the particular cause of his particular cancer."

In retaliation to Douglas' denial, the newspaper released the audio from the interview on its website, which can be heard here.

"Do you feel, in hindsight, that you overloaded your system?" the reported asked the actor. "Overloaded your system with drugs, smoking, drink?"

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

During his speach at the American Cancer Society on Monday at the Hudson Theater, Douglas had something to say about the incident.

"I've become, I think, in the past 24 hours a sort of poster boy for oral cancer, and just so you all understand, I think we would all love to know where our cancer comes from," he said, as reported by The New York Daily News. "I simply, to a reporter, tried to give a little PSA announcement about HPV, a virus that can cause oral cancer, and is one of the few areas of cancer that can be controlled and there are vaccinations that kids can get. So that was my attempt."

Dr. David Agus confirmed in an interview CBS News on June 4 that HPV is "very common" in the United States.

"We've got 70 plus million people affected with the virus," he said. "The number of throat cancers is very small comparatively but it's still is in the 7 to 8 thousand for men and women. Much more common in men than women."

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