Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were one of the biggest Hollywood power couples at the height
of both of their careers in the late 1980s.
Despite ending their marriage over 20 years ago and marrying other people, they have remained
good friends and are often seen hanging out together as part of a 'blended' family.
But what actually led to their divorce and is their co-parenting friendship really as
sturdy as it seems?
From the outside, Willis and Moore seemed like the celebrity power couple that would
go the distance.
With a quiet family home in Idaho and a devotion to their three daughters, the two seemed like
they figured things out.
But as both of their Hollywood stars rose, they drifted apart and, if the rumors are
true, right into the arms of others.
The pair’s romance story began in 1987 at a movie screening in Los Angeles.
The actress was actually with her then-fiancé, actor Emilio Estevez when she met Bruce at
the premiere of Stakeout.
The actress recalled that she attended an after-party with Willis that night and he
asked her to write her phone number on his arm.
She also remembered him pulling up beside her on the highway while she was driving home
saying, “It was a stretch limousine in the next lane, with Bruce Willis and his buddies
poking up through the open sunroof, shouting, 'Hey, Demi!'.
It was like the universe was telling me: pay attention to this one.”
Soon after Demi ended her relationship with Emilio, and began dating Bruce almost immediately.
Just 4 months after they met, the pair took a trip to Las Vegas which is where Bruce popped
the question.
Demi said, "We were moving to the gambling tables when Bruce said, 'I think we should
get married.'
We'd been joking about it on the flight there, but suddenly it didn't seem like he was kidding."
Willis and Moore were wed inside their suite at the Golden Nugget hotel, with only a handful
of guests in attendance.
A month later, the couple had a lavish ceremony with their friends and family in Los Angeles.
Although this was Bruce’s first marriage, it was Demi’s second as she had previously
been married to singer Freddie Moore for five years before splitting in 1985.
She obviously moves fast!
Within two years, she was divorced, engaged to Emilio, broke up with him, and married
Bruce!
It is believed that Demi fell pregnant on their wedding night with their first daughter,
Rumer (Willis.
Three years later, they welcomed their second daughter, Scout . And 3 years after that,
they welcomed their third daughter, Tallulah .
In her first pregnancy, Demi took a wrecking ball to the convention that a pregnant woman
should be ‘modest’ as she did a nude pregnancy shoot for a magazine cover.
The actress started a trend, empowering other celebrities to do the same.
Moore and Willis traded in the spotlight for a simpler life with their children.
After their first child, they moved to rural Idaho to raise their family in privacy.
Demi also walked away from Hollywood to raise her kids.
The couple remained the it couple for most of the 90s, but things went downhill in 1998.
If you were around in the 90s, how could you forget this couple’s divorce?
It’s consumed tabloids for over 2 years.
Their 13-year marriage came to an end in 2000.
They separated in 1998 and two years later filed for divorce.
When they submitted the paperwork, it was finalized the same day.
We don’t think you can get a quicker and more peaceful divorce than that!
At the time, Bruce said that he wasn't entirely sure what had gone wrong in their relationship.
When asked about the divorce, he said, “I still love Demi.
We have three children whom we will continue to raise together, and we’re probably as
close now as we ever were.
We realize we have a lifelong commitment to our kids.
Our friendship continues.”
By the time Demi and Bruce actually divorced, there had been speculation for years that
it was going to happen.
The couple sparked separation rumors in 1993, and the Charlie’s Angels actress spoke on
the speculation saying, “They won't stop until one day they may be right.”
Yikes!
But what actually led to the couple’s divorce?
The pair shot 33 movies in their time together and they had been slowly buckling from the
strain of filming Hollywood blockbusters.
They were spending too much time away from each other and leading independent lives for
some time before their separation.
It is completely understandable as Willis was at the height of his career with the Die
Hard franchise and Moore was the highest-paid actress in the industry.
Bruce apparently never visited his wife during the grueling 4-month shoot for G.I.
Jane Busy schedules and extended periods of time away from one another are the reasons
most celebrity couples never last.
But it’s not always the entire story.
Another reason that led to this couple’s divorce was all the actor’s various real
estate ventures.
One of which was rebuilding the small town of Hailey in Idaho.
The stress of this venture led to the pair engaging in a public spat in a restaurant.
Moore apparently stood up, slammed her hands on the table, and said, “'I'm sick of your
bull and your companies!”
and then she walked out.
But wait, there may be even more reasons that led to their divorce!
Although these rumors have not been confirmed… or denied, there was allegedly infidelity
on both parts.
In a 1996 interview with Playboy, Willis discussed his views on monogamy which make the infidelity
rumors very believable and his divorce from Moore less surprising.
In an interview, he asked the interviewer to lie on his hotel bed while describing how
terrific the bachelor lifestyle was for him.
"I love women.
You know how guys look at women and go, 'Ooh, wow!'
I'm still that guy,” he said.
The worst part?
He wasn’t joking in the slightest!
He then spoke about his views on marriage which created more cause for concern.
“What is marriage?
No woman is going to satisfy a man's natural impulse to procreate.
The impulse doesn't go away.
To think that you are going to find one person who understands what you need right now and
is able to give it to you, to anticipate what you will need ten years from now, 20 years
from now – for the rest of your natural fucking life – is a myth."
Yikes.
No wonder Moore was rumored to be jealous of Willis' co-stars.
Willis was rumored to have had affairs with Liv Tyler) and Milla Jovovich while filming
Armageddon and The Fifth Element.
Both of which, if true, would have occurred around the time Bruce and Demi’s marriage
was falling apart.
There was also an alleged incident with an actress Willis hired to manage one of his
restaurants, but by that point, Moore had checked out of the marriage.
One of the actress’s friends said, "I'm sure Demi heard about other women.
But, at least at the end of their marriage, I don't think she cared."
Much like the Die Hard actor, G.I.
Jane’s extra-marital life was also the target of tabloid speculation that's never been verified.
The most legendary is her rumored one-night stand with Leonardo DiCaprio), which both
Moore and Willis denied.
Rumors also swirled around about Moore's wild partying nights with Brad Pitt , Johnny Depp
, and Ben Affleck , but again, there has been no concrete evidence.
The only confirmed "suspicious" activity is how quickly Moore rebounded with her karate
instructor, which still doesn't prove much of anything.
If there was infidelity on Bruce’s part, it wouldn’t have surprised Demi as she said
he was tormented by the idea of marriage.
She also understood that people grow, change, and drift apart.
“It is not unusual to go from feeling like your spouse’s lover to feeling like he is
just someone with whom you negotiate logistics,” she said.
One thing this ex-power couple can say they did right was handling their kids and co-parenting
relationship in the years after
the divorce.
“I think that we did a magnificent job of making sure that our children knew that they
were loved,” Demi said.
It wasn’t only the actress and fans that were impressed with how well they handled
the divorce, their kids were too.
Their oldest daughter, Rumer said, “I’m so thankful and grateful that my parents made
such an effort at that time.
They always made an effort to do all the family events together and have our family be one
unit, as opposed to two separate things, which I think really made an impact.”
They managed to maintain an incredible friendship and support each other after they moved on
with their respective new relationships.
In 2005, the actress married fellow actor, Ashton Kutcher in a small at-home ceremony.
Her ex was a special guest at the intimate wedding, and he integrated Ashton as a part
of their blended family.
Kutcher and Moore divorced in 2013, and Bruce was right there by her side to help her through
the split.
It wasn’t until 2007 that Bruce met Victoria’s Secret supermodel, Emma Heming . After a little
over a year of dating, the couple tied the knot in a luxurious ceremony in Turks and
Caicos
The couple welcomed their daughter, Mabel in 2012 and their second daughter Evelyn)
in 2014.
These were Bruce’s fourth and fifth daughters and he is incredibly close with all of them.
In 2019, Bruce and Emma renewed their vows, saying they "wouldn't do it without" Demi
there.
These exes make sure that they have a strong “blended tribe” as the actor calls it.
They promised to have a commitment to their friendship after the divorce so they could
put their kids first and they kept to that commitment over the years.
Their unique relationship had a lot of people confused in 2020, however.
The pair quarantined together with their daughters during the height of the pandemic – without
Emma!
His wife was unable to be quarantined with them as their youngest daughter accidentally
stabbed herself with a needle in a park and needed to stay near her doctor.
Yikes!
But this duo managed to have the best time and bond with their daughters and each other.
"It's generated a lot of interest because everyone can understand resentment and envy
in the breakup of a marriage, but they don't understand how I can get along with my ex
like that.
Demi and I made a choice to put the kids first, and we're really lucky that it turns out we
all have fun together,” the actor said.
Even his current wife said that she had immense respect for the former couple for working
through their divorce and putting their children first.
Demi also believes that they are more connected now than they ever were while they were married.
Demi Moore and Bruce Willis show us that a healthy divorce where your kids come first
is possible.
They also show us that you can always be friends with your ex and co-parent successfully by
still loving parts of the person you once loved.
Let us know what you think about their relationship now and all the scandal surrounding their
divorce in the comments below.
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