The delighted Hollywood divorcees
THEY go on holiday with each other and have new partners who look as young as their children. But Bruce Willis and Demi Moore are proof that splitting up can sometimes keep the family together.
He may be a Hollywood hardman famed for the death-defying stunts in his Die Hard action films but this time 10 years ago, Bruce Willis was a broken man “paralysed with despair” after his difficult divorce from actress Demi Moore.
When they separated in 1998 after 11 years together, there were allegations of infidelity, rumours of screaming rows and a legal wrangle over their £130million fortune.
In the middle of all of that were their three daughters – Rumer, then aged 10, Scout LaRue, six, and Tallulah, four.
After two years they finally agreed a settlement, with Demi walking away with £52million and an agreement over joint custody of the children and, as with so many divorces, each party was left emotionally battered and bruised.
“I thought I had failed as a father and as a husband by not being able to make it work,” said Willis. But 10 years on and how the picture has changed.
A new red carpet family portrait, taken last week, shows that in spite of hardship, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for couples who separate.
It’s hardly the Waltons but the eight tanned, toned members of the extended Willis/Moore clan look happy and healthy. And what more could two parents want for their brood?
Demi and Bruce have, for the sake of their children, put aside their differences and, out of the rubble of their marriage, constructed a newer, healthier relationship.
I thought I had failed as a father and as a husband by not being able to make it work.
Only two years after the split, they confused Hollywood by appearing in public together. But there was no suggestion of a reconciliation, for on Demi’s arm was martial arts instructor Oliver Whitcomb; Bruce brought along a date, too, actress Maria Bravo. It was to become a familiar scene, even when five years later Demi settled with a new husband, younger actor Ashton Kutcher.
Bruce says his family includes his daughters, his ex-wife and, most surprisingly, her husband and explains that they often holiday together.
“The thing people find most remarkable about my life now is that I am close to Demi and actually friends with her husband. We’ve been on holiday in the Caribbean where I have a house and Ashton and I went diving together.
“Matthew McConaughey was in the islands and he looked at us hanging out and said, ‘This is the future. This is what everybody should be doing’. We have a great time together.”
Bruce’s acceptance into his family of Demi’s husband is an entirely foreign concept for most divorcees. In the picture, Demi appears comfortable standing alongside Bruce’s current squeeze. Demi may have had £250,000 of cosmetic surgery but there’s no getting away from the fact that she is much the older model at 45.
Bruce’s girlfriend, lingerie model Emma Heming, has two traits most ex-wives would deplore: she’s a leggy brunette with a clear physical resemblance to a younger Demi and at 29, she is only nine years older than Bruce and Demi’s daughter Rumer.
But are they playing happy families? Demi insists not and that behind closed doors they are just as close. “We spend all our holidays together and if Bruce wants to stop by and have dinner, he can just call. Bruce is a wonderful father, he’s present and he’s involved. I feel so unbelievably fortunate to have a relationship with our whole family. It is in a very different form than the traditional but I feel my children have a father who is present so they don’t need somebody to replace him.”
Demi is no stranger to controversy. She raised eyebrows when she graced the cover of Vanity Fair when heavily pregnant and naked but it was her marriage in 2005 to a man 15 years her junior that was most shocking.
“While Bruce had been seen out and about with younger women, that was just considered to be really typical,” says a Hollywood insider. “Older guys are always dating younger girls but the minute Demi was seen to be dating Ashton Kutcher, people were shocked and jumped to the conclusion it was a publicity stunt.”
Her public appearances with the 30-year-old sparked mutterings that she, the elder, more experienced actress with a far more bankable name, was being taken for a ride. Kutcher was an aspiring actor and was known for his playboy lifestyle.
Two years after they started seeing each other, they married in a Kabbalah ceremony. Three years on, their critics have been silenced and the couple, although childless together, remain strong.
Kutcher’s career has hardly set the world alight but he appears focused on family life. He jokingly refers to his wild, partying lifestyle prior to their marriage as BD or Before Demi and in one interview appeared embarrassed that during the early days of their courtship Demi and her daughters stayed occasionally at his apartment, where from time to time other girls would show up unannounced. Demi soon put paid to that.
He says: “I remember people thinking we were together for commercial reasons but I don’t think I gave a damn. My career was doing fine when I met Demi.”
If cracks were beginning to emerge in the veneer of the perfect, if unconventional, Willis-Moore family life, then surely by now they would be obvious. From time to time, though, the occasional story of heartache within the clan emerges.
Last year Demi’s sister-in-law Lesley Guynes spoke about Demi and Ashton. Lesley, estranged wife of Demi’s half-brother Morgan, said Demi would never have any more children “because she is too old”. She claimed they had been “trying for a baby for years”. The couple’s spokesperson rubbished the claims from the “distant relative”.
Further difficulties have emerged as Rumer raises her public profile. At 20 and desperate for a Hollywood career, she has faced the accusation that she trades on her famous parentage.
“I’ve been really lucky,” Rumer admitted at the Los Angeles premiere of her latest film The House Bunny (where the picture of the whole family was taken). “My parents have worked so much and so diversely in this business and
I’m grateful to have them to turn to when I have questions about auditions and stuff.”
She has pointed out how “it doesn’t define me, who my parents are”, but certain critics have really laid into her. American gossip blogger Perez Hilton childishly calls her “potato head” on his website and makes cruel jokes about her “prominent chin”. He had a field day when police raided a hotel room she was staying in, arresting a film technician for possession of marijuana. Rumer was questioned and released without charge.
Hilton says he dislikes her because, “She’s ugly on the inside. This is a girl who dropped out of college after the first semester. Rumer walks the red carpet. She is actually courting the spotlight with the aim of becoming a celebrity.
I hate that”.
Rather than call in daddy to sort out the bully, Rumer set about him on her own blog. It can’t be easy for any of the girls, growing up in the public eye.
“Having parents with their heads screwed on has helped them turn out normal so far,” says a celebrity insider. “There are celebrity offspring who we see melting down, like Peaches Geldof, or courting massive controversy, like Paris Hilton, but so far the Willis girls seem to be doing ok.”
Bruce says: “Demi and Ashton and I work together to teach our three kids what drugs are about, what drinking and driving means and all the perils of the world. But my kids are really smart and really hip, they get it. They talk to me about everything; about boys and what drugs the kids in school are taking, what’s available.”
Rumer says that although her family is unconventional, it works. “My dad and Ashton get along. It’s not weird.” And the strangest thing about it is that: “There’s no jealousy or drama at all.”
