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Learned that it is true for 3-manifolds as well, so included in the question.
kosta
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Why is it true that if two 4-manifolds are homeomorphic then their producs are diffeomorphic?

Near the top of the second page of this paper, it is claimed that if two 4-manifolds $X,Y$ are homeomorphic, then their producs $X \times X, Y \times Y$ are diffeomorphic. Why is this true? It is trivially correct for 3-manifolds and lower dimensions. What about higher dimensions?

References would be greatly appreciated as well.

kosta
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