Itzkoff, Dave (September 12, 2019). "Demi Moore Lets Her Guard Down". The New York Times . Retrieved October 6, 2019.

What did I need to do to be accepted? Was it best to stand out or blend in? It would be decades before it occurred to me that I could be whoever I truly am, not the person I guessed other people wanted to see." While Demi was still a young teenager, however, she was driven to self-destructive behavior, like partying, hanging out with older boys, and giving in to their sexual demands. Thus Demi succumbed when her mother pimped her out to a middle-aged restaurateur named Val Doumas. Val was waiting inside the apartment when 15-year-old Demi got home from school - having received a key from Ginny - and just took it for granted the teenager would have sex with him. It took a long time for Demi to realize she'd been raped. She says, "For decades, I didn’t even think of it as rape. I thought of it as something I caused, something I felt obligated to do because this man expected it from me. I had let him expect it from me. I was an easy mark for a predator." In Demi's view, the assault contributed to her subsequent substance abuse and anxiety problems.Demi Moore had a very broken and dysfunctional family because of whom she started early with sex, drugs, and alcohol. However, she learned all the lessons, changed her habits and focused on becoming the best paid actress of her time. I wouldn't say I'm some big fan of Demi Moore. I grew up seeing her on-screen, I remember her striking eyes and unique voice. I knew she'd married Bruce Willis and had a few kids, that she went on to marry Ashton Kutcher and the tabloids couldn't get enough of their relationship, and of course I remember her Vanity Fair cover by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz. I'm sure this constant angst and doubt about her self worth and never quite belonging anywhere helped Demi hone her acting skills from an early age. Being the new girl at school repeatedly from repeated moves, Demi had to rely on her instinct to work out how best to fit in. To be the chameleon who could blend seamlessly into her surroundings. During her second pregnancy, big-bellied Demi posed for a nude cover photo for Vanity Fair magazine - a picture she thought was artistic and beautiful. The photo was roundly excoriated, however, and the scathing article that went with it made things even worse. Demi writes, "I was portrayed as selfish, egotistical, and pampered, and that being Mrs. Bruce Willis had gone to my head, swelling it unmercifully." There were assertions that Demi was catered to on the set of The Butcher's Wife (where the interview occurred) and that she was a prima donna surrounded by sycophants. Demi reports, "The article had a subtle negative impact on my career." Living with unreliable parents made Demi a snoop, which led to the discovery that Danny wasn't her biological father. Demi's biological father was Charlie Harmon, Ginny's first husband. Danny wanted to keep it secret because he thought Demi wouldn't feel the same way about him. However once the truth came out, it was Danny who withdrew from Demi, spelling the end of their close relationship.

We get to learn about her difficult childhood and teenage years, and how her complicated relationship with her mother shaped Demi into the insecure woman that learned from a very young age to hide her troubles behind a dazzling smile. Her difficult early years also taught her independence and strong, and professional work ethic. One thing is for sure, every single accomplishment in her life, Demi has earned. Fireworks: Disney Enchantment • Disney in the Stars • Happily Ever After • Illuminate! A Nighttime Celebration • Momentous • Together Forever: A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular Then she details all her fears, insecurities, and body image issues which she struggled all her live with. She spoke so beautifully of her three husbands, she pointed out her mistakes, their mistakes and the reasons why everything happened. She is very honest about her feelings, very fair towards both Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher, very loving to her daughters, and incredibly supportive of women in this cruel industry. I loved her stories about the infamous Vanity Fair cover when she posed naked and pregnant, about her roles in A few Good Men, Striptease, and GI Jane - all movies and moments where she depicted strong women who were supposed to be regarded as such, but she was trashed in the media for various stupid reasons. I know we’ve had some global warming since, but it seems like it’s pretty much always at least 70 degrees and super humid in the DC area (where the film is set and where I now live**), and I’ve definitely left the windows open pretty much year-round in any apartment I’ve ever occupied around here, with absolutely no self-directed malicious intent, so this movie scene remains mystifying to me today. I’m sure that the actual risk being alluded to was something like overdose, and that there were ample veiled 80s cocaine and pill references going on in the film that I missed, being barely over 10 and fully immersed in the Just Say No campaign.)

Things only got worse when Demi started using Vicodin, and the actress made up her mind to detox all by herself. She remembers, "It's one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life. Going off opiates is agony. It's unimaginably excruciating. You can't sleep because your body hurts too much. It's like the worst flu you ever had times a hundred." All this was too much for Ginny, who - when the family lived in Pennsylvania - tried to kill herself. Demi writes, "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 while my father held it open and told me what to do." This turned out to be the first of Ginny's many suicide attempts, and Demi remained constantly on the watch, feeling she had to 'help her parents clean up their messes.' This was a deeply personal look at Demi’s life and career. A childhood filled with trauma leading to insecurities and abandonment issues. Even as her career grew she battled issues like addiction and low self-esteem. None of her three beloved daughters are speaking to her. She has two divorces under her belt. Her health is playing up. It seems that everything and everyone is conspiring against her, and she wonders why she struggled so hard to end up somewhere which was so far removed from where she wanted to be in her life. Note: The decision was made to consolidate all Disney publications under the name Walt Disney Company. This profile is for Walt Disney, the characters he created, and the company he founded. Any questions, please ask in the Librarian's Group.