The Untold Truth Behind Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore’s Split

Who wasn't obsessed with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's relationship in the early 2000s? Well, now, a decade after their divorce, secrets about their relationship are starting to reveal themselves…

Media Frenzy

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's eight-year-long relationship completely captivated the world. They were the paparazzi's number one target around Hollywood, and people loved them. But then things completely turned…

The couple had been together for nearly a decade and married for 6 years before they formally announced their separation, and people were completely shocked by the news. The rumors were spreading, but there were never any real answers - until now. So let's take a closer look.

Small-town Boy, Big Dreams

Before Kutcher was Kelso, the young actor, born Christopher Ashton Kutcher, grew up in the Midwest. With an older sister and a twin brother, Michael, who suffered from health complications, Ashton felt the only way to escape reality was to invest his time in the high school drama program.

Following high school, Kutcher studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa when he was offered the opportunity of a lifetime. A model agency scouted him to enter the "Fresh Faces of Iowa" competition, where he won first place and was sent to NYC. From there, he moved to Los Angeles to get his career truly started.

That '70s Show

But as soon as he hit Hollywood, Kutcher became an overnight success. Probably his most famous role to date, Kutcher was cast as Michael Kelso in That '70s Show, where he had on and off again flings with his now wife, Mila Kunis. What are the odds of that one?

Following the sitcom's success, he completely blew up in Hollywood. He hosted the hit MTV show Punk'd and later starred in hit movies like Dude, Where's My Car? and The Guardian. Years later, the actor joined the cast of Two and a Half Men and is currently in the That '90s Show reboot.

Before Demi Moore

Before she was recognized as one of Hollywood's brightest and most highly-paid actresses of all time, Demi was just your typical girl from Roswell, New Mexico. Born Demi Gene Guynes, she and her family moved around a lot due to her stepdad's job - but she was always destined for success.

As a teen, Moore enrolled in drama classes and instantly fell in love with the arts, and eventually signed with Elite Modeling Agency as one of their top clients. At a young age, Demi fell head over heels for a musician named Freddy Moore, and the two married in 1980. So now, does Demi 'Moore' check out?

Rising Star

Before becoming famously recognized for her role starring in About Last Night, Moore had smaller parts in the iconic opera General Hospital and the '80s film St. Elmo's Fire. However, it was once she received a Golden Globe nomination for Ghost that her career continued to pop off.

With starring roles in Indecent Proposal, A Few Good Men, and more, Moore became Hollywood's highest-paid actress by the mid-90s. She even shaved her head for her role as G.I. Jane - now that's dedication! However, she took a small hiatus from the acting world before returning back with a new charm on her arm.

Spotted Together

Fast forward a few years, and romance rumors began buzzing when Ashton, 25 at the time, was seen out and about at dinner with Demi, 41, in LA. The pair were spotted amongst friends at a trendy restaurant and two weeks later were seen again in Miami over Memorial Day weekend in '03.

At the time, a witness told PEOPLE they shared a "very romantic" kiss upon leaving a restaurant in Miami one night. And just like that, Moore landed Hollywood's number one playboy - and the world couldn't help but obsess over the newest "it" couple.

Tying the Knot

Upon their return from their romantic getaway in Miami, the rumors were confirmed true, and Ashton and Demi were officially official. After two years of dating, rumors spread around town that the two eloped in Mexico - but it wasn't until they returned home that they said their "I do's."

On September 24, 2005, Kutcher and Moore wed among 100 of their nearest and dearest at their home in Beverly Hills. A friend of the couple told PEOPLE, "it was a beautiful wedding," while another friend said, "There was just so much love in the room."

The Age Gap

Even before the nuptials, the couple faced a whole lotta backlash from the public over their relationship. Besides their gorgeous lewks, people loved to comment on their 15-year age difference. However, Kutcher and Moore ignored the crowd and just joined in on the fun.

In fact, when the actor hosted Saturday Night Live back in 2005, Demi joined her husband on the show for his opening monologue, giving the world a good ole laugh. Moore was introduced to the audience as an elderly woman in her 80s with grey hair and a walker as the two poked fun at their age gap. LOL.

Inside Out

However, things weren't all peachy at the end of the day. As we know, the couple eventually divorced after nearly 10 years together in 2013, but there was never really anything at the time to explain why they called it quits. However, there were plenty of pretty daunting rumors…

And then, almost 6 years after their divorce was complete, Moore literally turned things "inside out." The Ghost actress published a tell-all memoir in 2019 about her life, titled Inside Out. The 272-page book gave the public full access to what really went down between her and her ex...

A Do-Over

Moore detailed her relationship with Kutcher in the book, beginning with their first interaction and how she didn't care about their age gap. She wrote, "He was 25. I was 40. But I'm telling you: we couldn't feel it. We were totally in sync from our very first conversation…."

She continued to write, "When I met Ashton, it almost felt like a do-over, like I could just go back in time and experience what it was like to be young, with him -- much more so than I'd ever been able to experience it when I was actually in my twenties."

Getting Down on One Knee

Moore explained in her memoir that the couple got engaged after finding out she was pregnant. She described the memorable moment, "He asked me to go down to the beach to watch the sunset, and then he got down on one knee and presented me with a beautiful vintage Cartier ring. I was overwhelmed."

The actress revealed she told him she needed a second to think about it because she didn't want to marry him only because she was pregnant. "But I loved him," she wrote. "And I knew he loved me. And I knew this baby would cement our family, bond us all on the deepest level. By the end of the night, I'd said yes."

Becoming "Stepdad"

Before marrying Kutcher, Moore was married to Die Hard actor Bruce Willis, and the couple had three girls together, Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah Belle. Despite their separation, the girls always came first - and Kutcher knew it. As far as their relationship? He said, "We talk about everything. It's amazing."

At the time, Demi Moore said about her husband, "Ashton's relationship with his own mother is really wonderful, so it made the transition to being with a woman with daughters something he didn't bat an eye at." Luckily for everyone, they all truly got along.

Unexpected News

However, things took a dramatic turn when Demi received life-altering news. She wrote, "Almost six months into my pregnancy, right at the moment when we were going to start telling everyone, we went to the doctor's office. He did his usual ultrasound, but this time, there was no heartbeat."

The happily married couple had lost their baby, and together they were grieving their loss. "Ashton did his best to connect with me in my grief. He tried to be there for me during the miscarriage, but he couldn't really understand what I was feeling," she shared in her memoir.

Desperate for Answers

However horrific their loss was, Moore was dedicated to trying again with Kutcher. She shared in her memoir, "I was still desperate to have a baby with him." The actress shared that her husband at the time was committed to having a baby with her in any way possible, but Demi wanted to carry the baby.

"I wanted to be the fertile woman who could have his baby," Demi confessed to her readers. However, the couple understood that it might not be possible for Demi to carry the baby, and they began to look into IVF, potential egg donors, and surrogate options.

Feeling Ambushed

In the midst of trying, Demi shared that Ashton had a change of heart. The actress revealed they had, in fact, found an egg donor, but "Ashton told me, 'I don't think I can do this, and I don't know if this is working.'" Demi wrote, "I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me."

"I asked him why he'd let me research a donor, go through this painful prolonged process, and make myself vulnerable in this way if he wasn't up for it. His response was simple: 'I never thought you'd go through with it.'" It was the last thing she had expected to hear from her then-husband.

Opening Up Their Marriage

Years later, Demi reflected on indulging in her husband's fantasies in her book. "They were good people, but it was still a mistake. Part of the point of monogamy is the energy of somebody making the sacrifice or the choice for you… As soon as another person is brought in, you are no longer being held in that sacred spot."

Moore was in it for the long haul and was dedicated to doing whatever she could to make it work. So when Kutcher mentioned welcoming more people into their marriage, she went for it. "I wanted to show him how great and fun I could be." She shared, "There were two different people we opened our relationship to…"

Whatever It Takes

Moore admitted in her memoir, "I wanted this marriage to work, and I was willing to do whatever it took to jump through any hoop." She was so in love and so dedicated to her marriage to Kutcher. However, things were just not working out the way she envisioned.

The actress came to the conclusion that was two options for her and her husband. One was to try and make their marriage work in whatever way possible, or two, to watch things continue to spiral downward. And unfortunately, there was just more bad news to come.

Betrayed

The couple denied all cheating rumors at the time, but later on, Demi shared a particular memory. "I remember the night they met. We were at a bowling alley with Rumer, and when he went to switch out our shoes, she gave him her number on a napkin. Or that's what he told me at the time."

Moore revealed Kutcher showed her the note, and she was utterly hurt and disgusted. Demi explained, "That is just gross. We were there with our kid, and she was there with her mother and her sister!" She also found out he had welcomed the 21-year-old from the bowling alley into their home while the family was out of town.

Blurring the Lines

Demi explicitly explained the situation in her tell-all memoir, including Kutcher's response to the situation. "Because we had brought a third party into our relationship, Ashton said, that blurred the lines and, to some extent, justified what he'd done," she wrote. She was shocked.

"I think he felt remorse," she said of her then-husband, "but he was also looking for a way to deflect blame, to maintain his own perception of himself as a decent family guy." She added, "In retrospect, I think all of this was his way of trying to get out of our marriage."

Dangerous Obsessions

The actress had also struggled with substance abuse for a lot of her adult life. To the point where before she shot St. Elmo's Fire, her director, Joel Schumacher, and two of the movie's producers checked Moore into rehab for just over 2 weeks. Besides her substance addiction, Moore wrote in her book she was obsessed with exercising.

"I didn't feel like I could stop exercising," she wrote. And unfortunately, she got caught up in a lifestyle she couldn't healthily uphold. She recalled, "I wanted to be that girl. The girl who could have a glass of wine at dinner or do a tequila shot at a party… So I tried to become that: a fun, normal girl."

Wake-Up Call

It was around Demi's 45th birthday when things got really bad, she wrote in Inside Out. She admitted, "Late that night, we all ended up in the hot tub… If other people hadn't been there, I would have drowned." Ashton carried her out and to her bed, noticeably upset, she said.

"But it was also confusing: Ashton had encouraged me to go in this direction. When I went too far, though, he let me know how he felt by showing a picture he'd taken of me [while intoxicated]," she added. Moore initially thought of it as a joke but later internalized it as shame.

Busted

Unfortunately, the trouble didn't end there. Moore had found out about Kutcher's second experience of infidelity through a Google alert notification. According to the tabloids, Kutcher spent the weekend of their 6th wedding anniversary in San Diego with another woman while she was away.

"He admitted it right away," she said. It was during an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America that she recalled the situation. "And I think my response was, 'Are you f****** kidding me?' That was it. And I think I could barely take a breath." However, she held it all together before she was expected on the red carpet.

Faking a Smile

"Then I had to hang up and go walk the red carpet praying with every step that this information hadn't gone wide yet, that nobody would thrust a microphone in my face and ask how I felt about my husband of 6 years [seeing] a 21-year-old he'd been hanging out with in a hot tub the weekend of our anniversary," she continued.

She added, "I really thought I might throw up." However, she somehow managed to gracefully walk to the red carpet like nothing was wrong. Demi was promoting a miniseries for Lifetime that she was directing and showed up with a big smile on her face, like the true talent she is.

Announcing Their Split

The couple had faced one too many challenges, and after 8 years of dating and 6 years of marriage, Kutcher and Moore had called it quits. On November 17, 2011, they individually released statements announcing their split. And just like that, they were over.

According to PEOPLE, the couple was seen together for a few weeks following the news of Kutcher's second cheating scandal breaking. However, things got way out of hand, and there was no way to repair the distrust in their relationship, which could explain why it took years for Demi to break her silence on the topic.

A Blast From the Past

The couple had announced their split, but it didn't take long for Kutcher to find a new lady. Before the divorce was finalized, he began dating his old That '70s Show costar, Mila Kunis. On-screen, their characters shared an on-and-off romance, so why not mimic the partnership in real life?

Kutcher and Kunis tied the knot in 2015, and share two beautiful children together, Wyatt Isabelle and Dimitri Portwood. Much differently to his relationship with Moore, the couple managed to keep a very low profile throughout their relationship - until Inside Out.

Getting Personal

Upon the release of Moore's detailed memoir, Inside Out, the public gained insight on some of the most personal and intimate aspects of her life. From her childhood to her career and her marriages, Moore released the whole story about what happened between her and her ex-husband.

Despite the controversy from the tell-all, Kutcher kept total silence and, according to PEOPLE, never acknowledged the claims. It took over a year for him to admit on WTF with Marc Maron that "There's no badness. It's all good" between them. Well, some would say otherwise.

He Finally Comes Clean

Nevertheless, he wasn't going to stay quiet forever. Sometime after Moore released Inside Out, Kutcher sat down with Esquire in a cover interview when Demi's memoir came up - and he finally shared his side of the story. And he didn't hesitate either.

"I was f****** pissed," Kutcher recalled. "I'd finally gotten to a place where the press had really laid off me and Mila, and my life and my family. And then the next day, [the paparazzi] are at my kids' school." He hesitated and then stated, "I don't want to open anything up in that realm."

Mila's Opinion

Kutcher wasn't the only one who had some thoughts on the subject either. Kutcher revealed in the interview with Esquire that Mila told him, "You were an a******," to which he responded, "Was I…?" It seemed he didn't fully understand the depth of what he was doing at the time.

The Friends with Benefits star immediately countered with, "Yeah, you were an a****** for a good two years." Kutcher revealed, "She didn't blink." So, despite all the trauma and hardships between Moore and Kutcher, it gave him insight into how to be a proper husband to Mila.

The Last Laugh

Fast forward years later, and things have really turned around. In the 2022 Super Bowl, Kunis and Moore even linked up for an AT&T commercial. In the commercial, the two joke about all the things they have in common - from attending the same high school to their marriages with Kutcher!

While Kutcher and Moore might not have worked out the way they had originally planned, the heartwarming commercial showed how things truly worked out in the end. There were no hard feelings toward one another, and everyone could continue to move on.

The Bigger Picture

With all she shared about her marriage to Ashton in her memoir, she also shared that she was "grateful to Ashton too, believe it or not." Despite the hidden pains between the two of them, Moore realized she could have stored so much anger towards him but decided to go the other route.

"Whatever pain we went through together enabled both of us to grow into the people we are today. We continue to collaborate with our foundation, Thorn, and I'm so proud of the work we do," she admitted. They may not be together anymore, but they truly have figured out how to move past their traumas for a greater purpose.

Devastating News

On February 16, 2023, Moore took to Instagram to share heartbreaking news about her ex-husband Bruce Willis. "Since we announced Bruce's diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce's condition has progressed, and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia," she wrote.

The Mayo Clinic defines frontotemporal dementia as an "umbrella term for a group of brain disorders that primarily affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. These areas of the brain are generally associated with personality, behavior, and language." For those under 60, FTD is the most common type of dementia.

Raising Awareness

Upon the news of his diagnosis in 2022, it was revealed he would take a break from Hollywood for a while. However, with the most recent update, the Pulp Fiction actor will no longer be gracing us with his unbelievable talent. His talents will be missed, and Demi is determined to do anything she can to remedy the situation.

"Bruce always believed in using his voice in the world to help others and to raise awareness about important issues both publicly and privately," Moore and her family shared. "We know in our hearts that – if he could today -- he'd want to respond by bringing global attention and a connectedness with those who are also dealing with [FTD]."

"Live It Up"

Although Moore and Willis separated over 20 years ago, the exes remain close, especially with them sharing 3 children together. So as far as what's next, the family has every intention of just living it up. "As Bruce always says, "Live it up" and together we plan to do just that," Moore shared.

Willis re-married back in 2009 to Emma Heming, and the former couple remained as friendly as ever. Demi even attended the wedding with her ex, Kutcher! "We realize we have a lifelong commitment to our kids. Our friendship continues. The institution has been set aside," Willis shared about their relationship.

Overcoming Jealousy

However, there were some rough moments for Willis and Moore, too, especially when they started bringing home new relationships. Willis remained single for ten years following the divorce, and when his ex began dating Kutcher in 2003, he faced some jealousy issues. And who did he turn to for advice? Will Smith!

"During some very dark hours, he talked to me about it. He said, "Dude, you've got to do whatever it takes to get the kids and all the spouses or the girlfriend together. You've got to show your kids it's okay," Willis revealed to Playboy in 2007. "It was like a light went on. Ding. So Will, thanks."

One Family Unit

Despite all their hardships, Moore and Willis have been there for each other and their children regardless of the situation." They always made an effort to do all of the family events still together… to still have our family be as one unit, as opposed to two separate things, which I think really made an impact," Rumer once gushed.

The family even spent four weeks together quarantining during the pandemic, and they continue to celebrate holidays and joyous occasions as a happy blended family. The Moore x Willis clan is sticking together even stronger together now, proving love is really all we need...