As a child, she was traded for money to an older man; now she’s a famous actress
Born Demi Gene Guynes on November 11, 1962, actress Demi Moore, who changed her surname after marrying her first husband, Freddy Moore, at the age of 18, has had a tough upbringing that profoundly affected her life and helped shape her identity.
Moore’s father left before she was born and she was raised by her mother, Virginia King, and her step-father, Dan Guynes.
Her childhood was traumatic because her mother battled substance ab-se most her life. In fact, their relationship was strained and rocky from the start. Her mother attempted suicide multiple times, and Moore, although a young child, took the role of a caregiver at times and was there to save her mother.
In her book Inside Out, the Ghost star opened up about her dark past, writing that after her parents’ split, her mom would often take her to bars for men to notice her. Heartbreakingly, one of those nights ended in r-pe.
Moore was just 15 when she was s-xuaIIy assa-lted by a man whom her mother knew. Speaking to Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, the actress revealed that after the assa-lt, he asked her how it felt like “to be wh***d by your mother for $500.”
FULL INTERVIEW: “I lost myself.” @justdemi sits down one-on-one with @DianeSawyer and tells us about her new book #InsideOut that revels aspects of her devastating past. https://t.co/XfiCga6CV7 pic.twitter.com/56xhZrW4aS
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 23, 2019
Asked if she believed the man’s words were true, Moore told Sawyer, “I think, in my deep heart no. I don’t think it was a straightforward transaction.
“But she still – she did give him the access and put me in harm’s way.”
Despite the struggles and the challenges she had faced because of her mother, Moore tried to reconcile with her multiple times throughout her life. Eventually, Virginia King passed away in 1998 due to cancer.