‘It was like a monster came': Demi Moore’s daughters on their mother’s battle with addiction
Actor suffered relapse following separation from Ashton Kutcher in 2012
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Demi Moore’s daughters have opened up about their mother’s battle with drug and alcohol addiction.
On Thursday, a preview of the latest episode of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk, was posted on the social media site.
The upcoming episode, which is due to air on Monday, will see Moore discuss her past substance abuse issues alongside two of her daughters, Rumer and Tallulah Willis.
Moore’s third daughter with ex-husband Bruce Willis, Scout, does not appear in the teaser.
The 56-year-old recently documented her struggle with addiction in her new memoir, Inside Out, which chronicles her drug habit during her twenties before she entered rehab.
The Ghost actor managed to stay sober for nearly 20 years. However, following her split from third husband Ashton Kutcher in 2012, Moore relapsed, turning to alcohol and Vicodin.
In the short clip, Tallulah details how the family coped with their mother’s relapse, revealing that it drove a wedge between them.
“It was like the sun went down and like a monster came,” Tallulah said.
“I remember there’s just the anxiety that would come up in my body when I could sense that her eyes were shutting a little bit more, the way she was speaking. Or she would be a lot more affectionate with me if she wasn’t sober.”
Rumer nodded in agreement as her sister spoke before describing their mother’s behaviour during this time as “jarring”.
Tallulah added that she would often get “upset” at Moore when she was intoxicated and would find herself speaking to her mother “like a child.”
“It was not the mum that we had grown up with,” the 25-year-old continued.
In her memoir, the Hollywood actor also recalled how she suffered from disordered eating and an obsession with exercise.
Moore revealed that the fixation began when she was training for the role of a naval lawyer in the movie A Few Good Men, shortly after giving birth to her third child.
“I didn’t feel like I could stop exercising,” Moore wrote in the book.
“It was my job to fit into that unforgiving military uniform I’d be wearing in two months in A Few Good Men. Getting in shape for that movie launched the obsession with working out that would consume me over the next five years. I never dared let up.”
Despite learning from her doctors at the time that she wasn’t producing enough fat in her breast milk to sustain her daughter, Moore found herself unable to stop working out.
The actor added that her strict exercise routine came to an end after she had an “epiphany in the shower one day”.
“I just need to be my natural size,” she wrote.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments