Demi Moore Says She Took Her Daughters ‘for Granted’ While Dating Ashton Kutcher

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were in a relationship for nearly a decade long. During that time, Moore became “addicted” to Kutcher and began to neglect her three daughters, Tallulah, Scout, and Rumer. As a result, Moore’s children broke contact with her. They didn’t talk to her for three years because of the fact that she began taking them “for granted.”

Demi Moore explains her ‘addiction’ to Ashton Kutcher

In Moore’s memoir, she details how difficult her childhood was and how she never really had anyone to take care of her. Yet when she began to date Kutcher, all of that changed. He was able to make her feel safe and complete in ways that she had never experienced before. And because of how good he made her feel, she became much too reliant on Kutcher throughout their relationship.

“I was addicted to him,” she writes. “And I did all the things that addicts do. I prioritized my addiction over my needs and the needs of my family. I made strange, unconvincing justifications for my behavior- and his.”

Unfortunately, prioritizing Kutcher over her children caused the family unit to crumble. “I had held the family together as a pillar,” she writes, “and the pillar was crumbling.”

Demi Moore’s children disapproved of her relationship with Ashton Kutcher

Although Moore’s daughters loved Kutcher as a father figure, they disapproved of their mother’s relationship with him. According to Rumer Willis (who is Moore’s daughter with Bruce Willis,) she felt like Moore was pulling away from them throughout her relationship with Kutcher. It was especially devastating for Rumer when Moore began trying to have a baby with Kutcher. This made Rumer feel like she wasn’t enough for Moore.

“So much of that time, especially with Ashton, I was so angry because I felt like something that was mine had been taken away,” said Rumer. “When she wanted to have another baby, and then there was so much focus on that, it was like, ‘Oh, well we’re not enough.'”

And according to Moore, she was aware that she was taking her children for granted while trying to have a baby with Kutcher.

“Throughout the course of this awful period, I think I began to take my relationships with my daughters for granted,” she writes in her memoir. “To them, I had become secretive. Now it seemed like Ashton and I were shutting them out. To make things more complicated, they were at the age when kids naturally start to separate from their parents.”

Demi Moore thought her bond with her daughters would last forever

According to Moore, one of the most devastating instances of her life was when her daughters stopped talking to her for several years. And as she reveals, she “lost sight” of how much mothering they really needed from her.

“Ultimately, I assumed that our bond was safe no matter what,” she writes. “When your kids stop looking like kids- they look big, and they act big- it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that they will forever see you through the eyes of a child. I think that in my pain, I may have lost sight of how much mothering they still needed.”