Demi Moore & Her Daughters: How Addiction Affects Families
Daughters of popular American actress, Demi Moore open up about their mother’s addiction and how it affected them. The trio sat down with Jada Pinkett Smith and their mother at the Red Table Talk and exposed what went on when their mother drank or used drugs.
Rumer, Scout, and Talulah Willis are the daughters of Demi Moore and her second husband, Bruce Willis. The girls have lived majorly with their mother following the divorce of their parents in 1998.
Moore’s battle with addiction began in her 20s, when she started drinking heavily. Later she began using cocaine to cope with the pressure of stardom. She went to rehab under the advice of Joel Schumacher in 1985.
But about 20 years later, in her 40s, the “Ghost” actress relapsed into drug and alcohol abuse. Things got really bad and the relationship between Demi Moore and her daughters was severely damaged by her addiction.
So if you think it would be grand to have such high-profile Hollywood stars as your parents, you might be wrong. Whether or not a family is well-to-do or as highly rated as Demi Moore, addiction affects families the same way.
Here’s how it usually goes.
Firstly, there is a lot of fear…
Rumer Willis recalled a near-death experience where her mother overdosed and she had to call 911. She feared that she and her sisters would never see their mother again. That the person you love might actually kill themselves because of an addiction is a very scary thought.
She also feared that if her mother survived this, she would have the bad image of her mother as a junkie with no control permanently burnt into her memory.
Then there is anxiety…
In the preview clip of the interview, Talulah described what it was like seeing her mother intoxicated. She said, “It was like the sun came down and a monster came out”. Talulah, the youngest of the girls, said Moore transformed into someone who was not their mother.
“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.”
And then you get angry…
Talulah added, “It was very weird, and there were moments where I would get angry. I recall being very upset and kind of treating her like a child and speaking to her like a child. It was not the mom that we had grown up with.”
Addiction causes a rift in relationships
Moore remained sober for “almost 20 years” before relapsing in her 40s. This led her daughters to stop speaking to her. At the same time, her marriage with Ashton Kutcher was on the rocks.
It most likely seemed to them that she valued her high more than she valued her family. This is the basic feature of addiction; the substance becomes the priority.
But then there is hope…
The fight against addiction is an uphill battle. It doesn’t just get cured. Rather, one has to make a conscious effort to stay clean. Demi Moore has since been sober, recently releasing a tell-all autobiographical book titled “Inside Out”.
In the book, she writes, “It was hard work getting here. But I wouldn’t trade what I have with them now for an easier journey. We all took separate paths, but we’ve ended up in the same place. After what we went through, we no longer take our relationships for granted … I’m so grateful we all have one another.”
Her relationship with her three daughters is recovering and her book has been a huge success so far. Rumer Willis is proud of her mother’s journey and shared this statement about her:
“I’m so proud of her vulnerability, and I think so many women have watched her — and just as her daughter I’ve watched her — as this kind of beacon of strength and this kind of leader. I think what I really respect about her is, she’s never the victim in her story. She takes accountability, she takes responsibility, and — mind you — this is her perspective, her story, and she’s the first one to say that.”
This is proof that regardless of the situation, if you are committed to being a better person and if you have the people you love rooting for you, you can overcome anything.
Congratulations, Demi Moore!
