Demi Moore was abandoned by her biological father when her mom, Virginia 'Ginny' King, was pregnant with her.
Trigger Warning: This article contains details of suicide and rape that may be distressing to readers.
Demi Moore may be one of Hollywood's most beautiful actresses but the star had a far less glamorous life growing up. The now 60-year-old reflected on her childhood in her memoir Inside Out. She was just around 12 years old when her mother first tried to kill herself. "I remember using my fingers, the small fingers of a child, to dig the pills my mother had tried to swallow, out of her mouth," Moore wrote in the book. The actress told ABC News's Diane Sawyer that her mom attempted suicide "many, many times." According to Good Morning America, she said that "life-changing moment" was the end of her childhood.
Moore was abandoned by her biological father when her mom, Virginia 'Ginny' King, was pregnant with her. Months after the Ghost actress was born, her mom married ad salesman Dan Guynes. Moore believed that Guynes was her biological father until she turned 13, which is when she found her birth certificate. Moore was hit with another tragedy when her mother and stepfather soon separated and the man Moore called her father, took his own life following his separation.
Moore's troubled mother caused more pain in Moore's life. At 15, Ginny would bring her daughter along to bars so that men would take notice. Moore revealed once a man raped her in their home and asked how it felt "to be wh*red" by her mother "for $500." Talking about whether she thought her mom sold her, Moore said, "I think, in my deep heart, no. I don't think it was a straightforward transaction." She added, "But she still — she still did give him the access and put me in harm's way."
Moore eventually dropped out of high school and left her mom's home at 16. She wanted a better life for herself and signed up to go on acting auditions without any formal training. Her "confidence" was more of an "I don't have anything to lose" mentality, she claimed, adding, that "I don't have anything, so why not?"
The actress has dedicated the book to her three daughters and her troubled mother. In 1987, she found love with Bruce Willis and got married. Although the pair separated later and Willis remarried, they all are part of a beautiful blended family. Rumer, Willis and Moore's eldest daughter, told PEOPLE in October 2021, how grateful she is for the way her parents raised their family. "I never felt like I had to choose between them," she said at the time.
"I have a lot of friends who grew up with parents who got divorced at a young age and I watched their parents, like, pit them against each other or have to choose between holidays," she said. "And I didn't have to do that, and I feel so grateful that my parents made it such a priority that we could be a family, even though it looked different," she added.
References:
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris
