Demi Moore is on an upswing in both her career and personal life right now, but it took her a long time to get there. The actress released her memoir, Inside Out earlier this year, revealing just how hard she had fought to get her life on track over the years. For many fans, it was the first they had heard of some of Moore’s struggles.
Moore is one of her generation’s most iconic stars, known for everything from action to drama, and as famous off-screen as she is on it. The 57-year-old has been through a lot however, from her childhood on through her years in the spotlight, and some fans still may not realize the extent of it.
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Moore was born and raised in New Mexico, by her mother and her step-father after her biological father left early on. The family moved to West Hollywood, California when she was 15 years old as her mother pursued a career opportunity.
It makes sense that Moore got into the entertainment business once there. The actress did not finish high school and moved out of her parents’ house when she was 16. From there, she suffered a series of personal tragedies, career triumphs and everything in between. It is all detailed in her book, which was released on Sept. 24, 2019.
Here are some of the biggest revelations from Inside Out by Demi Moore.
Sexual Assault
Inside Out details a horrific sexual assault Moore suffered at the age of 15. She describes her chaotic home life in-depth, accusing her mother of negligence of alcoholism. She also shares one painful scene in which she came home to find her mother’s friend Val, a 50-year-old restaurant owner, at her house.
“What are you doing here?” she recalled asking him. “Where’s my mom?”
Moore said she was then sexually assaulted by Val, and bullied into believing it was her own fault. She saw the man again, and wrote that a week later, he asked her: “How does it feel to be w—ed by your mother for $500?”
Moore said that she is still not clear whether her mother knew what Val did to her or not.
First Marriage
Moore’s first marriage was to a rock musician named Freddy Moore, who was 13 years older than her. At 16 years old, she explained, she was desperate to get out of her troubled home, and Freddy, 29, took advantage of that, despite being married already. However, Moore still feels guilty for breaking up his family.
“I was a self-absorbed teenager who hadn’t been raised with a lot of respect for the institution of marriage,” she wrote. “And I jumped into life with Freddy without, I’m sorry to say, much concern for his wife.”
Moore divorced Freddy when she was 20 years old.
Celebrity Hookups
Moore spared no detail in describing some of her other celebrity hookups from throughout the years in her book. She revealed that, while filming No Small Affair, she took comedian Jon Cryer’s virginity.
“Jon fell for me in real life, too, and lost his virginity to me while we were making that movie,” she claimed.
She also wrote about “one ill-advised night together” with Rob Lowe while filming St. Elmo’s Fire, and her time dating Emilio Estevez as well. It was during this time that she was “spiraling” into frequent cocaine abuse, to the point where a studio executive even tricked her into going to rehab.
Ashton Kutcher Cheating Allegations
Moore narrated her life through drug use, treatment, sobriety and an eating disorder, as well as her marriage to Bruce Willis. The next batch of truly shocking bombshells, however, came from her marriage to Ashton Kutcher. She revealed that she was heartbroken when Kutcher cheated on her with two different women, but the young actor thought it would be okay since they were promiscuous together.
“Because we had brought a third party into our relationship, Ashton said, that blurred the lines and, to some extent, justified what he’d done,” Moore wrote. In hindsight, she thought Kutcher was tyring to “deflect blame” in the situation.
Relapse
Moore had years of sobriety under her belt before her marriage to Kutcher, but said that her most serious relapse came while they were together. She revealed that Kutcher had cast doubt on the philosophies behind recovery in general.
“I don’t know if alcoholism is a real thing — I think it’s all about moderation,” she recalls the actor telling her.
With that in mind, Moore started enjoying a drink now and then, and it did not take long for it to spiral out of control. She described one instance on her 45th birthday when she “started passing out” in a hot tub “and slipping under the water.”
“If other people hadn’t been there, I would have drowned,” she wrote.
Worst of all, Kutcher was reportedly “furious” about Moore’s over-indulgence, which she found “confusing.”
“Ashton had encouraged me to go in this direction,” she reasoned, so she did not understand why he was “shaming” her for her behavior.
Miscarriage
In the midst of this relapse, Moore revealed she suffered a miscarriage. Though she never revealed it publicly, she was pregnant with Kutcher’s child, a daughter she had named Chaplin Ray. She was nearly six months along when she miscarried, she wrote.
“I was decimated. I had literally failed to deliver, and my grief felt bottomless,” she said. “I was still smoking when I found out I was pregnant, and it took a few weeks to quit completely. I was wracked with guilt, and convinced what had happened was my doing.”
The ordeal did not help Moore get back on track with her sobriety, either.
“I’ve had a devastating experience, I’m drinking, that’s okay,” she remembered telling herself.
Near-Death Experience
After separating from Kutcher, Moore suffered a seizure in January of 2012. She said that it was brought on by inhaling nitrous oxide, or “whip-its” for a brief, easy high.
“The next thing I remember, everything went blurry and I could see myself from above. I was floating out of my body into swirling colors, and it seemed like maybe this was my chance: I could leave the pain and shame of my life behind,” she recalled.
Forgiving Ashton
Finally, some fans may be shocked to hear that Moore is actually at peace with Ashton Kutcher and their ill-fated marriage. She wrote that she is thankful for the actor for helping her “grow.”
“I’m grateful to Ashton, believe it or not,” she wrote. “Whatever pain we went through together enabled both of us to grow into the people we are today.”
Moore’s memoir, Inside Out, is available now wherever books are sold.
