Tallulah Willis Described Her Life As A 'Dumpster Fire' When Mom Demi Moore Married Ashton Kutcher
Divorce can be incredibly hard on all kids, but when you're the child of two famous Hollywood actors, it can be a particularly difficult pill to swallow. Tallulah Willis, the youngest daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, was only six years old when her parents divorced. A couple of years later, Moore, 41 at the time, began dating actor Ashton Kutcher, who was 25 years old.
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore got married in 2005 and stayed married for six years before divorcing in 2011. Tallulah says this transition to having Kutcher as a stepfather was extremely tough for her, describing it as a "dumpster fire."
Not only was she adjusting to no longer living with her dad, but she had to learn to live with the "That 70s Show" actor and adjust to him taking on a parental role. Although Tallulah had her older sisters Rumer and Scout to rely on, she says that she is still processing the experience.
Moore's involvement with Kutcher sent Tallulah into a downward spiral
Tallulah Willis shared how tough it was to have her parents divorce and her mom remarry when asked about her Hollywood upbringing on the Fox reality show "Stars on Mars." "I grew up in Idaho. And I knew my parents had this job that made them this thing, and we got to do cool stuff, but I didn't fully understand," explained Tallulah, according to Insider.
She added that when her parents divorced and her mom began dating Kutcher, it became overwhelming. "It was that moment, a lot going on, and I really went inside of myself, and that did send me into like a total dumpster fire," she said. "It was really hard, and I'm still unpacking."
However, Tallulah says that while it was difficult, she did find something beautiful in it: "I found the other side of that, which is like I really love myself now and I love my family."
Ashton Kutcher had a tough time filling the parental role
Ashton Kutcher has shared that taking on a whole family while still so young himself was definitely a challenge. The actor admits he had a lot to learn although he greatly loved Moore and her children. "I was 26, bearing the responsibility of an eight-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a 12-year-old," Kutcher told Esquire. "That's how some teen parents must experience their twenties."
Kutcher's marriage to Moore also affected Tallulah's relationship with her mom. "I felt very forgotten and I felt like I developed and I nurtured a narrative that she didn't love me. And I truly believed it," Willis shared on "Red Table Talk" (via Yahoo!) in 2019. "And I know that she does 100 percent, but in that moment, you're hurt and you can't fathom that someone that loves you would do that to you and would choose others more than you."
Kutcher says he still cares deeply about Tallulah and her sisters. "I love them," Kutcher said on the "WTF" podcast. "I'm never going to stop loving them and respecting them and honoring them and rooting for them to be successful in whatever they are pursuing."
These life experiences have encouraged Tallulah to cherish family more deeply
When it rains, it pours, and this is especially true of the familial hardships Tallulah has had to face. In addition to healing from the strained relationships between her, her mother, and Kutcher, Tallulah now faces another heartbreaking emotional hurdle as her father battles against aphasia. Bruce Willis' aphasia, which directly impacts speech and communication, is a symptom of frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative neurological disorder.
Tallulah wrote about her experiences in a letter to Vogue, describing visits to her father's house, where she takes photos, collects memorabilia, and listens to oldies. She says that Willis still recognizes her when she enters the room. And despite the grief and "dumpster fires" surrounding her family's history, Tallulah says she's learning to find the bittersweet positives of her experience.
"It wasn't easy growing up in such a famous family, struggling as I did to find a patch of light through the long shadows my parents cast," she wrote in her letter. "But more and more often I feel like I'm standing in that light. It feels like a unique and special time in my family, and I'm just so glad to be here for it."