Demi Moore Was Never The Same After Her Divorce From Ashton Kutcher

Ask cinephiles what Demi Moore's most iconic role is to date, and you'll likely get one of these answers: Molly Jensen in "Ghost," Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil in "G.I. Jane," or Elisabeth Sparkle in "The Substance." Now, ask them again about her most heavily publicized romantic relationship, and everyone will agree it was her controversial marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher. Yet, Moore's first two matrimonies were no less newsworthy. When she was just 17, she wed rock musician Freddy Moore, who was 12 years her senior. Then, from 1987 to 1998, she was married to Bruce Willis and had three children with him: Rumer Willis, Scout Willis, and Tallulah Willis. While her split with Bruce Willis was amicable and they remain close to this day, the same can't be said about how things went down with Ashton Kutcher.

Moore met the "That '70s Show" alum, who was 15 years her junior, at a dinner party in 2003. They were married in 2005 and divorced six years later. Their story received widespread attention, not just because of their age gap, but also due to reports of infidelity.

In the two years following the divorce, Moore stepped away from the spotlight to deal with various personal challenges. Then, she picked up the pieces, rebuilt her career, and finally nabbed her first major award — better late than never, right? What has this equally trying and enriching journey been like? Has she dated any other celebrities? What's next for her?

42-year-old Demi Moore and 27-year-old Ashton Kutcher tied the knot on September 24, 2005, at their Beverly Hills home. It was a relatively small ceremony with about 100 relatives and close friends in attendance, including her ex-husband Bruce Willis, daughters Rumer Willis and Tallulah Willis, and 1980s sitcom "Punky Brewster" star Soleil Moon Frye. Also present was Frye's husband at the time, Jason Goldberg, who is Kutcher's longtime producing partner.

To the public, Moore and Kutcher were fascinating, gorgeous celebrities who attended glamorous events together and were often photographed looking all lovey-dovey. In reality, it wasn't quite the idyllic fairytale romance, as subsequent events would later reveal.

In 2011, the pair called it quits following rumors of Kutcher's infidelity with several women. Supposedly, he had met one of them while he was out bowling with Moore. An administrative assistant named Sara Leal also claimed that Kutcher initiated a one-night stand with her at San Diego's Hard Rock Hotel on the night of his sixth wedding anniversary with Moore. "As a woman, a mother, and a wife, there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life," she said in an official statement (via CNN) in November 2011. Eventually, it was Kutcher who filed for divorce, which was finalized in November 2013.

Many factors contributed to Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's divorce and the latter's subsequent emotional and physical exhaustion. Yes, she was pushed to the edge by her husband's affairs, but she had also been weathering various challenges of her own, such as alcohol and drug addiction, codependency, low self-worth, and anorexia. In fact, she first developed an eating disorder at the beginning of her career, when her entourage in the industry constantly pressured her to lose weight. "There is a lot of torment I put myself through when I was younger," she recalled in a 2024 interview with Elle. "It was embarrassing and humiliating."

In 2012, after suffering a mild seizure at a party, Moore had no choice but to seek help at Cirque Lodge, an upscale alcohol and drug rehab center tucked in the peaceful Rocky Mountains of Sundance, Utah. According to an article on E! News from 2012, she had also hired the services of a psychic and an intuitive healer, but a rehab source revealed that "It became clear to her that her way of coping with her stress was not working and she needed more help." Over the years, that particular facility has welcomed many celebrities looking for seclusion and privacy, from Lindsay Lohan to Mary-Kate Olsen.

In July 2014, Demi Moore's youngest daughter, Tallulah Willis — who was just 20 years old at the time — spent 45 days in rehab for alcohol and cocaine abuse, depression, and a long-term eating disorder caused by body dysmorphia. In an Instagram post dated July 18, 2017, Willis candidly recalled, "I was a malnourished string bean with aches that echoed throughout my soul. ... I did not value myself, my life, or my body and as such, I was constantly punishing [myself] for not being enough." In 2021, she shared in an Instagram post that she long struggled with feeling insecure about her physical appearance, and it didn't help that strangers online would pick apart her looks when she was still a kid. "I punished myself for not looking like my mom, after being told I was [Bruce Willis'] twin since birth," she wrote. "I resented the resemblance as I believed wholly my 'masculine' face was the sole reason for my unlovability."

Seeing her daughter face all these mental health and addiction struggles, Moore couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt. She reportedly broke down in tears when Willis checked into rehab following a family intervention, according to Bang Showbiz (via The Arizona Republic). "Tallulah is making progress, but Demi is in pieces," reported a source at the time. "She's convinced she's passed her own problems with drugs and alcohol on to her daughter. Her eldest daughter Rumer is really worried about her mother and is trying to help her deal with the shock."

Before his divorce from Demi Moore was finalized, Ashton Kutcher started dating fellow "That '70s Show" cast member Mila Kunis. Before they got married in July 2015, they had already welcomed their first child together. Meanwhile, Moore wouldn't publicly start dating again until 2013, when her daughter Rumer Willis introduced her to Dead Sara drummer Sean Friday. Willis thought her mom was in dire need of some fun in her life and that Friday would make the perfect easygoing boyfriend.

The pair split in 2014, and the "G.I. Jane" actor stayed single (at least officially) for a period. But by 2022, Moore had a new man: Swiss chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author Daniel Humm. During their eight-month run, they were spotted together at various public events, from a runway show for Paris Fashion Week to the French Open finals. That relationship seemed to give Moore a sense of contentment and peace. As a source told Closer Weekly at the time, "He grew up in Switzerland, he's very international, he thinks differently from other men she's dated. That's one of the things she loves about him. She's in a good place ... He's funny, worldly, and a gentleman."

At the time of writing, Moore isn't officially seeing anybody. Reports suggest she's primarily focused on her career and her family.

It was high time for Demi Moore to shift the focus back on her career. The roles she landed between 2015 and 2022 may not have earned her widespread acclaim but they certainly diversified her portfolio. For instance, she starred in the revisionist Western "Forsaken," alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Donald Sutherland. As she told Entertainment Tonight at the time, her comeback was motivated "by the personal and professional opportunity" to closely watch the famous father-son duo together. Inevitably, rumors of a romantic relationship with Kiefer ensued, but the actor insisted she was only a friend.

Moore also appeared in the action-comedy "Wild Oats," opposite Shirley MacLaine and Jessica Lange; the romance drama "Blind," with Alec Baldwin; the comedy-thriller "Rough Night;" the Indian crime drama "Love Sonia;" and the horror-comedy film "Corporate Animals." In the latter, she played an ambitious CEO, which made her realize she didn't want to be typecast as the middle-aged antagonist. As she told IndieWire in 2019, "I do want to be careful not to play into a cliché, which is that all older women are evil, bitter villains, which is one of the next kind of things that needs to be overcome."

Perhaps this is why she then chose to portray a mysterious, fascinating neighbor in the musical drama film "Please Baby Please" and a strong divorced actor in the action-comedy movie "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent."

Before Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore's last TV appearance was in a 2003 episode of the hit sitcom "Will & Grace." Four years after the divorce was finalized, she would land the role of Claudia, a calculating and obsessive nurse, in the music drama series "Empire," opposite Rumer Willis, Terrence Howard, and Taraji P. Henson. Moore embraced the chance to portray such a juicy character all the while working alongside her daughter.

Then, in 2018, she was cast as the General in the third season of the HBO adult animated comedy series "Animals." "She was just so cool," co-creator Mike Luciano gushed to People at the time. "We kind of didn't know what to expect when we started and were pleasantly surprised to find that she was just so down for everything. Like, literally crawling on the ground with fake blood all over her face. She was hilarious." Determined not to be typecast, Moore also portrayed Linda, a mother who has been dealt many blows, in Peacock's science-fiction show "Brave New World," as well as socialite Ann Woodward in the anthology series "Feud: Capote vs. The Swans."

Since 2024, the actor has been playing Cami Miller, the socialite wife of an oil executive, in the Paramount+ drama series "Landman," opposite Billy Bob Thornton. As of this writing, there has not been an official announcement regarding whether or not it has been renewed for a third season.

On September 24, 2019, Demi Moore opened up about her tragic real-life story in a heart-wrenching memoir. In the book, she shared shocking details about her upbringing, career highs and lows, emotional struggles, addictions, and romances. Titled "Inside Out," it was dubbed "Book of the Year" by several publications, and for good reason.

Indeed, the actor had mustered up the courage to shed light on some of the most painful chapters of her life, including her tumultuous and harrowing childhood. She also recalled her first experience with drugs, which occurred in Brazil, on the set of her first movie, "Blame It on Rio," and revealed she cheated on Freddy Moore on the night before their wedding. Moore also talked about her unhealthy obsession with dieting and exercising in preparation for films like "A Few Good Men," "Indecent Proposal," and "Striptease," as well as becoming the highest-paid actress in Hollywood.

As for her time with Ashton Kutcher, she revealed that she suffered a miscarriage when she was 42 and that he roped her into having threesomes. She also opened up about her depression, her addiction to alcohol and pain medication, and his affairs. "I put him first," she wrote. "So, when he expressed his fantasy of bringing a third person into our bed, I didn't say no. I wanted to show him how great and fun I could be."

In parallel to her acting roles, struggles with addiction, bouts of depression, and romances, Demi Moore experienced a complex and fragile relationship with her three daughters, Rumer Willis, Scout Willis, and Tallulah Willis. Scout and Tallulah, in particular, went no-contact with her for three years after she suffered a drug-induced seizure in 2012. Moreover, Moore's codependent relationship with Ashton Kutcher made her emotionally available to others and profoundly affected Tallulah, who told Jada Pinkett Smith on "Red Table Talk" in 2019, "I was so angry because I felt like something that was mine had been taken away ... I felt very forgotten. I developed and I nurtured a narrative that she didn't love me and I truly believed it."

Moore's relationship with Bruce Willis was much less problematic, as both had made an effort to create a stable and loving environment. "I feel so grateful that my parents made it such a priority that we could be a family, even though it looked different," Rumer said to People in 2021.

Following her divorce from Kutcher, Moore tried hard to mend her relationship with her daughters. Their reconciliation was finally made official in May 2020, when Tallulah dedicated a loving Instagram post to her on Mother's Day. "I am magnetically transfixed by my mother," she wrote. "If you know me personally, you know the magnitude of her presence in my life."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Demi Moore executive-produced a podcast called "Dirty Diana," and she also voiced the titular character over Zoom. Created by media startup QCode, this erotic audio drama was intended to raise awareness about female sexuality. Excited at first, Moore eventually realized that this project helped her come to terms with her own insecurities in that particular area.

When asked in a 2022 episode of Variety's podcast "The Big Ticket" about what she had learned from that new experience, Moore confessed, "One of the great opportunities doing what we do is being able to use things to help push you beyond where you are resting. In this case, I realize there's a part for me that my sexuality has felt like it's dangerous, and that I should just keep it under wraps ... This has been an incredible opportunity of opening into areas that I'm not comfortable with."

In the wake of their divorce, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have maintained a strong bond. Willis not only went to Moore and Kutcher's nuptials in 2005, but when it was "The Fifth Element" actor's turn to walk down the aisle a second time, his ex-wife was there with bells on: In 2009, Moore and Kutcher went to Willis' wedding to Emma Heming. Despite all the challenges she's weathered over the years, Moore remained close to Willis and his wife, and they even quarantined together during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Bruce Willis' family shared a heartbreaking health update about the actor: he was diagnosed with aphasia. The following year, his family announced that he'd been diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration. These diagnoses effectively ended his acting career. Moore has remained a steadfast supportive presence and has occasionally helped Heming Willis care for her husband. "I have so much compassion for Emma in this, being a young woman. There's no way that anybody could have anticipated where this was going to go," she said on "The Oprah Podcast" in 2025. "It's hard to see somebody who was so, you know, vibrant, and strong, and so directed, shift into these other parts of themselves."

In 2025, after 45 years in the industry, Demi Moore won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for her performance in "The Substance." Directed by Coralie Fargeat, the satirical body horror movie featured Moore as a celebrity fitness guru and tackled the themes of ageism and unforgiving beauty standards in Hollywood. 

"I'm just in shock right now," Moore said in her Golden Globes acceptance speech. "This is the first time I've won anything as an actor. And I'm just so humbled and so grateful." She also received her first Oscar nomination that year. Gone are the early days of her career when she used to be referred to as a "popcorn actress" by producers, which, in her own words, "corroded" her self-esteem. 

There's more to come for Moore. Her next movie, "I Love Boosters" is scheduled for release in 2026. Plus, together with Emily Blunt, Rami Malek, Molly Ringwald, Stanley Tucci, and others, she's set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Talk about another huge career milestone that feels long overdue for a star who has proven time and time again she's so much more than a "popcorn actress."

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, an eating disorder, or mental health, help is available.

• Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
• Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
• Contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.