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Demi Moore Recalls The Traumatic Moment She Knew Her 'Childhood Was Over'

"Something very deep inside me shifted then, and it never shifted back," the actor told Lena Dunham in a cover story for Harper's Bazaar.

Demi Moore is as honest as she’s ever been in an interview with Lena Dunham for Harper Bazaar’s October issue. The star also strips down for the magazine’s cover photo, wearing only a chain-link diamond bracelet, a large pink hat and a massive grin.

The actor, who is releasing her memoir, “Inside Out,” on Sept. 24, spoke openly about her parents’ toxic relationship as she was growing up, the moment she knew her “childhood was over” and her own struggles with sobriety.

The “G.I. Jane” and “Striptease” star, now 56, recalled the terrifying moment that her mother overdosed, which to her seemed a reaction to her relationship with her husband.

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“The next thing I remember is using my fingers, the small fingers of a child, to dig the pills my mother had tried to swallow out of her mouth while my father held it open and told me what to do,” Moore told Dunham. “Something very deep inside me shifted then, and it never shifted back. My childhood was over.”

Though her relationship with her parents isn’t discussed much again in the article, the man Moore thought was her father wasn’t actually a biological parent ― something she has discussed before.

She also spoke to Dunham about regaining her sobriety, “something she achieved in her 20s, lost in her 40s, and got back as she headed into her 50s,” Dunham wrote.

Moore attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit Gala 2019 in New York.
Jennifer Graylock - PA Images via Getty Images
Moore attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit Gala 2019 in New York.

“In retrospect, what I realized is that when I opened the door [again], it was just giving my power away,” Moore said. “I guess I would think of it like this: It was really important to me to have natural childbirth because I didn’t want to miss a moment. And with that I experienced pain.”

She continued that “part of being sober is, I don’t want to miss a moment of life, of that texture, even if that means being in— some pain.”

Moore also talked about her struggle with sobriety last year at an event organized by the Peggy Albrecht Friendly House, a sober living program.

“Early in my career, I was spiraling down a path of real self-destruction and no matter what success I had I just never felt good enough,” Moore said in her acceptance speech for the organization’s Woman of the Year Award.

“I had absolutely no value for myself and this self-destructive path, it really quickly brought me to a real crisis point,” the actor added. “It wasn’t clear at the time, maybe it was divine intervention, but two people who I barely knew stepped up and took a stand for me and presented me with an opportunity, which I guess was more like an ultimatum — unless I was dead, I better show up.”

Head to Harper’s Bazaar to read the rest of Moore’s interview.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.