Demi Moore's memoir claims her alcoholic mom had a part in her being raped at 15: 'A devastating betrayal'
Demi Moore’s new memoir, Inside Out, delves into issues she had in her three marriages, but even her earliest relationships — with her parents — were deeply troubled.
In an interview with Diane Sawyer on Monday’s Good Morning America, the Ghost and G.I. Jane actress, 56, talks about her troubled childhood with two alcoholic parents and claimed that her mother allowed her to be raped at 15 — even profiting from it.
Sawyer recounted how Moore’s mother brought her to bars as a young teen “so that men will notice them.” One night, when Moore was 15, she came home and an older man they knew was waiting for her in their apartment and raped her.
It was after the sexual assault that Moore learned that her mother had given her rapist the key to their home. That was with the man said to Moore, “How does it feel to be whored by your mother for $500?”
Moore, who called it “a devastating betrayal” in the book, still has a hard time accepting it. Asked by Sawyer if she believes her mother “sold her,” the star searched for the right words.
“I think...” she started to say and then trailed off. “In my deep heart, no. I don’t think it was a straightforward transaction. But she still did give him the access and put me in harm’s way.”
Moore’s mother, Virginia Guynes, was a teen when she had her. She and the man Moore believed was her biological father, Dan Guynes, moved constantly throughout her childhood, which was plagued with debt, her parents’ addiction, infidelity and constant fighting.
Moore’s mother attempted suicide “many, many times,” she said. The first time, when Moore was 12, she pulled the pills out of her mother’s mouth to save her.
Along the way, Moore learned that Dan wasn’t her biological father, leading her to feel like she “wasn’t wanted” by her real dad. Not long after, Dan left, making Moore responsible for her unstable mother. That’s when the bar trips began and the rape occurred. Moore dropped out of high school not long after the assault and pursued a career in Hollywood.
Her troubles followed, she said in the interview. During her first role — on General Hospital — she developed a problem with alcohol and cocaine. During one of her early and prominent roles — in 1985’s St. Elmo’s Fire — she was ordered to go to rehab by the director and producer as her addiction worsened. The character she played in the film, Jules, also had drug problems.
“I mean — the irony certainly was not lost on me,” she said, calling the trip to rehab in her 20s “a profound gift that they gave me.”
Moore was sober for almost 20 years before she started drinking again — after meeting third husband Ashton Kutcher. After that marriage had fallen apart, she was just 102 pounds when she suffered a drug-induced seizure while partying with her daughter’s friends and was rushed to the hospital. Not long after, amid estrangement from her three children, she went to treatment to get sober again.
"I think the thing, if I were to look back, I would say I blinded myself and I lost myself," Moore said.
Moore’s interview with Sawyer continues on GMA on Tuesday and Wednesday. Her book Inside Out comes out Tuesday.
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