Her glittering career in Hollywood has spanned over four decades and seen her become one of the world’s most famous actresses.
But last night, Demi Moore celebrated a huge personal milestone: winning her first Golden Globe.
After missing out on the accolade three times before, the star, 62, was visibly emotional as she accepted Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her role in the feminist horror The Substance.
During her moving acceptance speech, the mother-of-three, whose daughters were cheering her on in the crowd, admitted she was hindered by a film producer who labelled her a ‘popcorn actress’ early on in her career.
She admitted: ‘I believed that and that corroded me over time to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it. Maybe I was complete, maybe I’ve done what I was supposed to do.’
But during a particularly ‘low point’ in her life, Demi explained how the ‘magical, bold, courageous, out of the box’ script landed on her desk – and added: ‘The universe told me that you’re not done.’
Last night’s Golden Globes win marks a stratospheric turnaround for Demi, who famously sought spousal support from her ex-husband Ashton Kutcher following their 2011 split.
During their eight-year relationship, the Ghost actress dramatically reduced the number of roles she took on while Ashton’s career went from strength-to-strength – with him bagging the lead role in 2004’s The Butterfly Effect and hosting MTV’s prank show Punk’d.
Pictured: Demi Moore at the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills last night, where she won Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her role in the feminist horror The Substance
Ashton Kutcher pictured in December 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. The actor has not starred in anything since 2023’s Your Place or Mine
But while Demi’s friends and family are celebrating her Golden Globes triumph on social media, the star’s career-defining win comes at a particularly trying time for her ex.
Ashton, who shot to fame in the 1990s with That 70s Show, last appeared in the Netflix rom-com Your Place or Mine, which came out in February 2023 and was panned by critics.
Later that year, Ashton and his wife Mila Kunis faced fierce criticism after writing glowing character references for their That 70s Show co-star Danny Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping two women in the early noughties.
Since then, Demi’s ex, who was diagnosed with the rare autoimmune disease vasculitis in 2019, has been keeping an incredibly low profile – with a source recently telling the MailOnline the actor ‘regrets’ his friendship with P Diddy and feels ‘betrayed’ by his former close friend.
Here FEMAIL charts Demi Moore’s incredible rise and Ashton Kutcher’s fall in Hollywood – as fans delight in seeing the actress flourish while her ex ‘flops’.
Demi’s career takes a hit as Ashton’s soars
Three years after her divorce from Bruce Willis, Demi Moore met Ashton Kutcher at a dinner party.
According to People magazine, the A-Listers, who have a 15-year age difference, were spotted on a double date with the disgraced rapper P Diddy and his then-girlfriend Kim Porter in Miami in May 2003.
Pictured: Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, who married in 2005 and split in 2011, at the California premiere of their 2006 film Bobby
Pictured: Demi Moore in the 1997 film G.I Jane, which was a box office flop and lost Hollywood Pictures £2m
Pictured: Demi Moore and Robert Redford in the 1993 film Indecent Proposal. Around this time, the star even reportedly earned herself the nickname ‘Gimme Moore’ in Hollywood as a result of the number of films she was ‘churning out’
At the height of her early fame, Demi was regularly booking blockbuster films – including Ghost, Indecent Proposal, Striptease and G.I Jane in the 1990s.
Around this time, the star even reportedly earned herself the nickname ‘Gimme Moore’ in Hollywood as a result of the number of films she was ‘churning out’, the New York Times reported in 2010.
But after meeting Ashton, the star took a small career break from mid-2003 until 2006.
In September 2005, the couple, who had been together for two-and-a-half years at this point, tied the knot in a small ceremony at their Beverly Hills home.
The following year, Demi dipped her toes back into acting when she starred in Emilio Estevez’s Bobby, which also briefly featured Ashton and received lukewarm reviews from critics.
Pictured: Demi Moore in the 2006 film ‘Half Light’, which went straight to DVD in the US. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said the actress ‘may wish to forget about the whole business’ in his damning review
Pictured: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore leave a Norah Jones concert in New York in the early days of their relationship
Pictured: Demi Moore with her ex-husband Bruce Willis and their three daughters and ex-partner Ashton Kutcher in 2003
However, the film Half Light – where Demi played a grieving novelist who relocated to Scotland in the wake of her son’s death – was branded yet another ‘clunker’ and subsequently released straight to DVD in the US.
In his damning review, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said the actress ‘may wish to forget about the whole business’.
Speaking to the New York Times in 2010, Demi discussed how challenging it was to land ‘creatively satisfying’ roles.
She explained: ‘There are limited opportunities just because not as many films are being made, and so you combine that with the fact that women have always spoken out about the struggle for good quality roles, and then you add into it that we are a very youth-driven society, and that brings other challenges. And I feel in a certain way I didn’t really fit in a box they could navigate.’
Foreshadowing a key theme of The Substance, she added: ‘Middle-aged women can have huge careers on television but not as much in movies. It’s like they celebrate you when you’re the pretty young thing, then there is a dead zone until menopause, when they rediscover you and give you an Academy Award.’
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher arrive at a special screening of the film Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle in June 2003
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher attend a reception to benefit UNICEF hosted by Gucci and Madonna at the United Nations headquarters in New York in February 2008
Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher was riding high from the success of his eight-year stint in That 70s Show at the time of his wife’s career low.
After The Butterfly Effect made a staggering $90m at the global box office, the actor starred in four more films in 2006 – including The Guardian, where he appeared opposite Kevin Costner.
From this point onwards, Ashton averaged two films a year and established himself as one of Hollywood’s most commercially successful leading men.
As Demi’s career took an undeniable hit in the late noughties, her husband starred in several fan favourite rom-coms – including What Happens in Vegas, Valentine’s Day, Killer, No Strings Attached and New Year’s Eve.
Despite the disparities between their careers, Demi told Elle magazine in 2010 that she and Ashton remained ‘equal partners’.
Towards the end of their marriage, Ashton bagged the most coveted role in primetime TV when he was cast as Charlie Sheen’s replacement in Two And a Half Men, which reportedly earned him $24m in his first year.
Pictured: Ashton Kutcher in the 2008 film What Happens in Vegas, which he starred in opposite Cameron Diaz
Pictured: Ashton Kutcher in Punk’d, the prank show he hosted for MTV from 2003, the year he met Demi, to 2007
Demi and Ashton’s bitter divorce battle
In 2011, Demi and Ashton sent shockwaves through Hollywood when they confirmed they had split. The announcement came two months after Kutcher’s alleged one-night stand with party girl Sara Leal.
Demi said in a statement: ‘As a woman, a mother and a wife, there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life.’
Meanwhile, Ashton wrote in his own announcement: ‘I will forever cherish the time I spent with Demi.
‘Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes, they fail.’
The following year, Ashton officially filed for divorce and cited irreconcilable differences.
Highlighting the differences between their celebrity at the time, Demi famously sought spousal support from her ex-partner and money for their legal fees.
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore pictured in June 2011 – just months before announcing their split
Towards the end of their marriage, Ashton bagged the most coveted role in primetime TV when he was cast as Charlie Sheen’s replacement in Two And a Half Men, which reportedly earned him $24m in his first year
Although the couple had no children of their own, the financial stakes of the divorce couldn’t have been higher.
As the highest paid actor on US TV in 2011, Ashton’s personal fortune was estimated at $135m – while Demi’s was thought to be around $150m thanks to her hit films in the 1980s and 90s.
A source told the New York Post: ‘Ashton made a lot of money after marrying Demi – a lot more than she made – but despite him becoming just as famous through her, he believes he doesn’t owe her that much.’
The couple finalised their divorce in November 2013 – with both parties agreeing not to pay spousal support.
Just four months later, Mila Kunis – who had started dating Ashton in 2012 – was pictured wearing an engagement ring, with the couple marrying in July 2015.
In her 2019 memoir Inside Out, Demi revealed she had given up her sobriety to show Ashton ‘how fun’ she was and alleges he was unfaithful on several occasions.
Elsewhere in her autobiography, Demi claimed Ashton cheated on her with a 21-year-old they had met at a bowling alley – and used a threesome they had had to ‘justify’ his behaviour and the ‘blurred lines’ in their marriage. Ashton has never publicly commented on the claims.
Demi went on to describe how she ‘went into contortions to try to fit the mould of the woman he wanted his wife to be’, adding that she ‘put him first’.
Ashton’s downfall
Pictured: Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis in their apology video – after they wrote glowing character references for their That 70s Show co-star Danny Masterson
Despite Danny Masterson (pictured, right) being convicted of rape, Mila Kunis (pictured, left) and Ashton Kutcher (pictured, centre) wrote letters supporting their friend and former co-star, begging the judge for leniency when it came to sentencing (seen at the premiere for Traffic in Beverley Hills in 2000)
Since his split from Demi Moore, Ashton has been embroiled in a series of scandals – including his friendships with disgraced rapper P Diddy, who has been charged with sex trafficking, and actor Danny Masterson, who was jailed in 2023 for 30 years for raping two women.
In July 2023, Ashton and Mila wrote character references for their That 70s Show co-star – asking him for leniency.
In their letters, both Ashton and Mila spoke highly of Masterson, claiming he always ‘treated people with decency, equality, and generosity’.
Ashton wrote: ‘I hope that my testament to his character is taken into consideration in sentencing […] He’s an extraordinarily honest and intentional human being.
‘Over [our] 25-year relationship I don’t ever recall him lying to me. He’s taught me about being direct and confronting issues in life and relationships head-on, resolving them, and moving forward.’
‘Danny is a person that is consistently there for you when you need him. Not only is he a good friend to me I’ve witnessed him be a good friend to others and the kind of brother others would be lucky to have.’
In a resurfaced clip from a talk show, Kutcher said that Kunis was ‘making it sound like it was really’ lecherous, conceding that he and Masterson ‘had a little side bet going’ on the kiss
Another older clip of Kutcher went viral, where during a joint 2002 interview with Kunis, the actress revealed that Danny Masterson bet Kutcher to ‘French kiss’ her when she was a ’14-year-old little girl’
At the time of writing the letter, Kutcher was chairman of the board of charity Thorn (which he had co-founded with Demi Moore in 2009 ) – a non-profit purported to help fight child sex exploitation. Kunis was an observer on the organisation’s board.
In an attempt to appease those angered by their support of Masterson, the actors released an apology video, which only led to further backlash.
A source told InTouch Weekly at the time that the furious response from fans had been a ‘huge wake-up call’ for the ‘well-respected pair’.
The insider claimed: ‘They are shocked to the core and are doing their best to lay low, hoping it doesn’t jeopardise their careers in the long-term.’
Just days after releasing the apology video, Kutcher came under fire once more, when a video clip from 2003 resurfaced, showing the actor making a problematic comment about Hilary Duff while she was underage.
The footage, from an episode of his show Punk’d, showed him talking about the then-15-year-old actress and singer.
‘Hilary Duff is in Lizzie McGuire, she also has an album out,’ Kutcher said.
In September 2023, footage from 2003 resurfaced showing the actor making problematic comments about 15-year-old actress and singer Hilary Duff during an episode of his show Punk’d (pictured)
In the clip, 25-year-old Kutcher said Duff (pictured) was ‘one of the girls that we’re all waiting for to turn 18’
‘She’s going to be in a movie called Cheaper by the Dozen. And she’s one of the girls that we’re all waiting for to turn 18. Along with the Olsen twins.’
While Duff was just 15, the Olsen twins would have been 17-years-old at the time – meanwhile, Kutcher was 25-years-old.
The video was unearthed after another older clip of Kutcher went viral, where during a joint 2002 interview with Kunis, the actress revealed that Masterson bet Kutcher to ‘French kiss’ her when she was a ’14-year-old little girl’.
Kutcher’s relationship with Danny Masterson is not his only friendship to face media scrutiny – as he was previously close friends with P Diddy for decades.
During an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2018, Diddy revealed that Ashton’s MTV show Punk’d – which he fronted from 2003 to 2007 – brought them together.
In 2009, Ashton attended Diddy’s notorious annual white party along with then-wife Demi Moore (pictured)
He recalled: ‘I gave [Ashton] a call one day and said, “I heard you are going to Punk me and I just don’t think that’s a good idea. If you do that that will not end well for you, but I think we should work out a deal”.’
Diddy explained that he was fearful of being targeted on Punk’d after watching an episode with Kanye West, adding that it ‘got so dangerous’.
In 2019, Ashton shared more details of his friendship with the rapper during an appearance on Sean Evans’ Hot Ones.
At the time, he said: ‘We became fast friends. We used to just hang out and watch football together.’
Last September, P Diddy was charged racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution and is currently awaiting trial.
Demi Moore’s second act
In The Substance, Demi plays Elizabeth Sparkle – a Hollywood star whose aerobics show is abruptly cancelled after her 50th birthday
Left: Demi Moore as Elizabeth Sparkle in ‘The Substance’. Right: Margaret Qualley as Sue in ‘The Substance’
Demi Moore’s success at the Golden Globes last night marks the star’s incredible return to the dizzying heights of her early career.
After taking on a handful of roles following her divorce from Ashton, Demi has been widely praised for her performance in The Substance, which has reportedly grossed $77m at the box office worldwide.
In feminist horror, the actress plays Elizabeth Sparkle – a Hollywood star whose aerobics show is abruptly cancelled after her 50th birthday.
Desperate to recapture her youth, Elizabeth buys a black market drug called The Substance.
Once taken, the user’s body creates a younger version of itself with its own consciousness and the two must swap every seven days.
During her moving acceptance speech, the mother-of-three, whose daughters were cheering her on in the crowd , admitted she was hindered by a film producer who labelled her a ‘popcorn actress’ early on in her career
Demi (pictured with co-star Margaret Qualley at the Golden Globes) has been widely praised for her performance in The Substance, which has reportedly grossed $77m at the box office worldwide
Speaking to The Guardian last year, Demi explained how she found it a ‘very hard’ film to make and was left feeling ‘very vulnerable’.
She said: ‘I had less pressure than [her co-star Margaret Qualley], because she had the added pressure to look amazing. I degrade throughout and I knew going in that I wasn’t going to be shot in the most glamorous way, or with the edges softened. In fact, the opposite. But there was something freeing about that.’
After stepping onto the Golden Globes stage, Demi was greeted by applause from the celebrity guests and admitted, ‘Wow, I really wasn’t expecting that.’
‘I’m just in shock right now. I’ve been doing this a long time, like over 45 years and this is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor.’ I’m just so humbled and so grateful.’
Demi’s win was also widely celebrated on social media – with X fans highlighting how the actress’ career has overtaken her ex-husband’s
Demi has been nominated for a total of four Golden Globes throughout her career thus far, winning her first on Sunday. She has also garnered Emmy and SAG Award nods over the years.
Demi’s win was also widely celebrated on social media – with X fans highlighting how the actress’ career has overtaken her ex-husband’s.
One gushed: ‘Demi Moore accepting her Golden Globe while Ashton Kutcher sits at home unbooked and unbusy, that’s JUSTICE.’
‘How wonderful to see Demi Moore succeeding and Ashton Kutcher flopping,’ another added.
Meanwhile, a third wrote: ‘Demi Moore on top, f**k you Ashton Kutcher.’