Demi Moore has been in two high-profile marriages during her lifetime: first to Bruce Willis and then to Ashton Kutcher. (She was also married to musician Freddy Moore when she was only 18.) But back in the '80s, Moore was engaged to another actor: Emilio Estevez. The St. Elmo's Fire co-stars got engaged six months after they started dating, but they never did make it down the aisle. They came close, though: Moore and Estevez broke up when, she says, she found out he was cheating on her after they mailed their wedding invitations. Read on to find out more.
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Moore and Estevez were co-stars and real-life partners.
Moore and Estevez were both members of the group of young Hollywood stars known as the Brat Pack early in their careers. They both appeared in 1985's St. Elmo's Fire, as well as in 1986's Wisdom, which Estevez also wrote and directed. Around that time, they were also involved romantically.
In a 1985 interview with The Washington Post, Estevez said, "We've known each other for a long time" of Moore, who was then his girlfriend. According to InStyle, Moore and Estevez became engaged just half a year after their relationship started.
Moore said that Estevez cheated on her.
In her 2019 memoir Inside Out, Moore opened up about her relationship with Estevez, including why they broke up.
"Emilio and I had in fact just mailed out the invitations for our wedding when a friend told me she had seen him out with someone else in L.A.," Moore wrote (via Vulture). She added that this was not the only situation in which her trust in her fiancé was tested.
She continued, "He denied it, of course, but I was having a hard time trusting him: during a two-week breakup a few months before, he'd slept with an 'ex' girlfriend, lied about it and then been forced to tell me the truth when he found out she was pregnant."
The woman Moore was referring to was Carey Salley with whom Estevez has two children. In 1986, UPI reported that Salley was taking legal action to request additional child support from the actor. At the time, he had not publicly acknowledged that the children—then two years old and eight months—were his.
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They went to see her therapist.
Moore wrote in Inside Out that after discovering Estevez's infidelity, thee couple went to see her therapist. Rather than helping, this was the nail in the coffin for their romantic relationship.
"When he revealed his priorities in that session—you'll be shocked to hear—I was pretty low on the list," Moore wrote. "I postponed the wedding indefinitely."
People reported that the wedding was called off in January 1987, noting that it was supposed to have taken place in December 1986. Per the outlet, the actors' busy careers were the reason for the delay.
"First, the run of The Early Girl, an off-Broadway play that Demi was appearing in, was extended," the People article reads. "Then the release date of Wisdom, which Estevez wrote and directed, and both he and Moore star in, was moved up to this week. Between wrapping up her play and promoting their film, not to mention preparing for last week's 25th-anniversary party for Emilio's parents (Martin and Janet Sheen), the would-be bride and groom were pretty busy, so they called the marriage off—for now."
They remained friends.
Even though their breakup was a dramatic one, Moore and Estevez stayed friends and went on to work together again. They played a husband and wife in the 2006 movie Bobby, another film written and directed by Estevez.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Estevez commented on the contentious relationship between their characters. "It was no reflection on what our relationship was like when we were engaged," he said. "She and I had been friends for years."
Moore opened up about acting in the film—which also features her then-husband Kutcher—with Good Morning America. "We did St. Elmo's Fire together, and I think he really has an ability to create," she said of her former fiancé.
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Lia Beck Lia Beck is a writer living in Richmond, Virginia. In addition to Best Life, she has written for Refinery29, Bustle, Hello Giggles, InStyle, and more.Read moreFiled Under1980s • Celebrities • Cheating • EntertainmentRead This NextDemi Claimed Ashton "Justified" Cheating
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