The Moment Bruce Willis Knew He No Longer Wanted to Be Married to Demi Moore

Demi Moore and Bruce Willis were once the “it” couple of Hollywood. All eyes were on the two throughout their entire courtship, and fans couldn’t get enough of the actors together. Not long after marriage, they started a family while raising three beautiful daughters. 

But sadly, their relationship crumbled over time, and the two ended in divorce. But when did Willis decide that he no longer wanted to be married to Moore?

How did Demi Moore and Bruce Willis meet?

Moore and Willis met at a premiere party for the movie Stakeout in 1987. Funnily enough, both Moore and Willis had other dates with them on the night they met. Moore was with her ex-fiance, Emilio Estevez, who was the star of the film. She insists in her memoir that they just went as friends because she had previously ended their engagement due to Estevez’s alleged infidelity. 

Estevez told Moore that Willis couldn’t take his eyes off of her all night. “He’s all over you, like a cheap suit in the rain,” her ex-fiance had told her. 

At first, Moore didn’t believe him. Yet it wasn’t until Willis asked if he could get her a drink that she noticed it too. She described how much of a gentleman Willis was that night.

“I’d never encountered treatment like this before,” she admitted in her memoir, Inside Out. “Bruce was so gallant- in his own boisterous way, a real gentleman. When I said it was time for me to go home, he offered to walk me to my car. He was so eager about it- Like a little boy who didn’t want to miss the ice-cream truck. When he asked for my number, I felt a wave of schoolgirl flutters.”

Why Bruce Willis didn’t want to be married to Demi Moore anymore 

According to Moore’s recently published autobiography, Willis was uncomfortable with Moore’s fame. (At the time, Moore was the highest paid woman in Hollywood according to Business Insider.)

Willis wanted a traditional marriage, according to the Ghost actor. One where the man was the breadwinner and the woman stayed home to take care of the kids. 

So when she had been offered a fantastic opportunity to do a film, he got mad. Moore says he was upset that she had to work in a different state for an extended period, away from the kids. Unfortunately, their polarizing views ended up destroying their marriage.

“My professional life was soaring,” she wrote. “My personal life was painful. Bruce was getting ready to go do a film that was shooting in Europe, Hudson Hawk. There was a lot of buzz around it: it had a huge budget; Bruce had worked on the story and co-written some of the songs, and he had a lot riding on the film. Just before he left, he dropped the bombshell: ‘I don’t know if I want to be married.'”

She said his comment caused her to feel “sucker-punched,” adding how she didn’t want to be with someone who wasn’t 100% invested in their marriage.

“‘I don’t know if I want to be married’ is not exactly the way to my heart,” she wrote. 

Bruce Willis wanted freedom because of his fame and fortune

Moore also believes that Willis was at a point in his life where he desired freedom over stability. And because of his celebrity status, (which was blowing up at the time,) he became distant. 

“Bruce and I had met, married, had a baby, and just done a lot, very quickly,” she revealed. “It was as if he woke up a few years later and thought, ‘Whoa, is this what I want? Or do I really want to be free?’ I think he was struggling to resolve a conflict within himself: he wanted family and grounding, but he also craved excitement and novelty. Basically, he wanted to do whatever the f**k he wanted.”