The prolific actress says she relapsed after Kutcher questioned whether alcoholism was a real thing during their marriage.
Demi Moore is making headlines after the release of her new autobiography, Inside Out, where she drops major bombshells about her childhood, her relationships, and living with alcoholism.
In the book, Moore describes an exchange with ex-husband, actor and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher, that made her question her sobriety and led her to relapse.
Relapsing During Their Marriage
“Ashton was enjoying a glass of good red wine when he said, ‘I don’t know if alcoholism is a real thing—I think it’s all about moderation. I wanted to be that girl. The girl who could have a glass of wine at dinner, or do a tequila shot at a party. In my mind, Ashton wanted that, too. So I tried to become that: a fun, normal girl.”
Moore, who was almost 20 years sober at the time, says she didn’t stop to consider that Ashton was just a young man who didn’t understand alcoholism at all. She used his uninformed thinking to justify her own return to drinking.
According to People, Moore revealed that the That ’70s Show star encouraged her to embrace her wild side during their marriage but when she went too far with her drinking, he would humble her with photos.
“Ashton had encouraged me to go in this direction. When I went too far, though, he let me know how he felt by showing a picture he’d taken of me resting my head on the toilet the night before. It seemed like a good-natured joke at the time. But it was really just shaming,” Moore writes.
Childhood Trauma
Moore also details various life-altering incidents from her childhood in Inside Out.
TW: Sexual Assault
In one of the book’s biggest revelations, Moore details how when she was 15, a middle-aged man began hanging out with her then-single mother, Virginia. One day, the man let himself into their house and sexually assaulted the teen but that would not be the last time she saw him. Shortly after the assault, the man helped them move into a new place.
During the move, the man asked Demi, “How does it feel to be whored by your mother for five hundred dollars?”
Demi then gets candid about the possibility that her mother played a role in her sexual assault.
“Though [the man] may have given Ginny [Virginia Moore] money with no clear discussion of what he would get in return, it’s also entirely possible Ginny knew exactly what he wanted, and it’s possible she agreed he could have it,” she writes.
Moore would go on to leave her mother’s house at 16 and head to Los Angeles where she would marry, have children and cultivate a career that would span decades.
Though Moore has experienced many ups and downs over her 56 years, she remains grateful for the life she is privileged to lead.
“I’ve had extraordinary luck in this life: both bad and good. Putting it all down in writing makes me realize how crazy a lot of it has been, how improbable. But we all suffer, and we all triumph, and we all get to choose how to hold both,” she writes.
