Inside Out summary

By the mid-seventies, Demi’s parents had spiralled out of control – they fought constantly, and were abusing lots of prescription medication. Eventually, they decided to separate. Ginny took Demi to live in an apartment in West Hollywood, while her father took her younger brother Morgan to live with him in Redondo Beach.

With the family split, Demi’s relationship with her mother changed a great deal. Rather than mother and daughter, they became much more like sisters. As Demi entered her early teens, her mother allowed her an irresponsible degree of freedom – there were, essentially, no boundaries. She was allowed to accompany her mom to bars, where her mom would grow increasingly drunk and flirt with men late into the night. Recalling how leering men would often stop and ask the two if they were sisters, Demi later suspected that her mom had used her as a kind of bait. It seemed like it would only be a matter of time before something bad would happen. 

While still living with her mother in California, Demi encountered a young woman who would have a profound impact on her life.

For a time after the family split, her mother rented an apartment in a complex with a large swimming pool. Demi would stand on her balcony and look down at the swimmers and sun-worshippers.

When she was a teenager in California, Demi often went to see New Wave bands play. One night, she went to see The Kats. The singer, Freddy, with his mop of blond, stringy hair, had something about him, she thought. An intensity. She thought that if she could be with someone that magnetic, then maybe it would make her magnetic too.

She went to see the band a second time, then snuck backstage afterward to meet him. Soon they were in love, and though she was just 16 and he was 29, Demi moved in with him. Before long, she was accompanying The Kats on tour, in an old Chevy Suburban that pulled a little trailer with all their equipment.  

When Demi returned from Brazil and ended her marriage with Freddy, she entered a dark period. Although her life was full of the activity that came with growing success, she felt increasingly lonely.

So she did what many people do in situations like that: she turned to alcohol. 

After St Elmo’s Fire, Demi went on to star in other 80s hits such as About Last Night and One Crazy Summer. 

Her romantic life was eventful, too. After a brief engagement to fellow Brat Pack member Emilio Estevez, she met someone who’d mark another significant chapter in her life: up-and-coming star Bruce Willis. At the time, he’d assembled a gang of young actors around him, like Woody Harrelson and John Goodman. Together, they lived the fast life, cruising around Los Angeles and partying every night. 

As a young Hollywood actress in the 1980s, Demi experienced the various biases and assumptions that impacted women working in film. So, it was fitting that she would go on to make two major contributions to the discussion around women’s bodies and gender. The first came while she was pregnant with her second child, Scout.

Though her marriage was suffering something of an early wobble – Bruce was having second thoughts about long-term commitment – they conceived a second child. A while into the pregnancy, Demi was asked if she’d like to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair. She did a shoot with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, and in the end, Vanity Fair chose a photograph that Demi thought was just going to be a private keepsake – a nude, with one arm covering her breasts. 

Demi and Bruce decided to divorce in October 2000. After thirteen years of marriage and three children, they felt that they had outgrown their relationship. It wasn’t until 2003 that she again met someone who she felt as powerfully drawn towards.

This was the twenty-five-year-old TV actor, Ashton Kutcher.