Demi Moore reveals she was raped at age 15 by man who paid mother $500

Demi Moore has opened up about her traumatic childhood amid the release of her revealing new memoir, Inside Out.  

In a Good Morning America interview that aired today, the 56-year-old actress revealed to journalist Diane Sawyer that she was raped at age 15 by an older man who paid her mother US$500 [approx. $738].

Moore's mother used to take her then-15-year-old daughter to bars so men would pay attention to them, according to the interview. Then, one night, Moore came home to find an older man, who had been given a key, already inside.

She told Sawyer that her rapist said, "How does it feel to be whored by your mother for $500?"

When Sawyer asked if Moore believed that was true, the Ghost star answered, "In my deep heart, I don't think it was a straightforward transaction," Moore explained. "But she still did give him the access and put me in harm's way."

Telling Sawyer that her childhood was "colourful," she revealed that the man who she was raised to believe was her biological father was not in reality.

"I made up about that — that I wasn't wanted or that I don't deserve to be here," she said.

The couple had explosive fights over infidelities, Moore told Sawyer. And when he left her troubled mother, who battled alcoholism, Moore was forced to care for her.

She also addressed her mother's multiple attempts to take her own life. In her new memoir, the actress recalled once pulling pills out of her mother's mouth at 12-years-old.

"[My childhood] was done," Moore told Sawyer of the experience. "[It was a] life-changing moment."

Inside Out arrives in Australian retailers today.

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