Demi Moore Recalls Controversy of Her 'Sexy' PregnantVanity FairCover: 'Thank God We've Grown and Evolved'

Mar. 15, 2025

Demi Moore on Oct. 13, 2024.Photo:Jessica Dalene/Shutterstock

Jessica Dalene/Shutterstock

Demi Mooresees her 1991Vanity Faircoveras an empowering, cherished personal memory, even if some of the public had a different reaction at the time.

On Sunday, Oct. 13, the actress spoke at the 32nd annualHamptons International Film Festival, where she was honored with the Career Achievement in Acting Award.

During the career-spanning conversation, moderator Alina Cho asked Moore about theiconic August 1991 magazine cover, on which she posed naked while pregnant with hersecond daughter, Scout.

Cho, a HIFF advisory board member and contributor toCBS Sunday Morning, recalled theVanity Fairphotoshoot causing “quite an uproar” at the time.

“The thing that really struck me when there was so much back and forth about it, and part of what I felt in just showing up to do the shoot, was an honest expression of how I was feeling at that time,” said Moore, 61.

She continued, “I felt very empowered as a woman. I felt sexy.”

Demi Moore in 1991.Paul Natkin/Getty

Paul Natkin/Getty

Photographer Annie Leibovitz captured the photos used in the magazine, though the nude maternity shot was originally not intended for editorial purposes. “That was actually done for me at the end of the shoot,” said Moore. “We were doing it just so that we had a family [photo].”

On newsstands, the magazine cover was deemed too provocative and, therefore, came with outside packaging covering up the photo.

Moore said there was a “silent agreement about what’s acceptable and what’s not, in the same way that there’s been a certain agreement around women aging and kind of then being pushed to the sidelines in a way that, let’s just say up until now, that we’ve kind of all agreed to because that’s just the way it is. But that doesn’t make it the truth.”

Demi Moore at the Hamptons International Film Festival on Oct. 13, 2024.Sonia Moskowitz/Getty

Sonia Moskowitz/Getty

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At the HIFF event, held inside the East Hampton Middle School, one audience member who brought the originalVanity Fairissue passed it up and onto the stage. Moore smiled as she held the copy, careful not to tarnish the decades-old magazine. “I don’t want to hurt it, but thank you for passing it up. Make sure you get that back,” she said.

The fan who brought the magazine, Sharon Long from Long Island, told PEOPLE afterward that the “unapologetic” magazine cover left an impression on her.

“It was so beautifully done,” said Long. “It was sexy and sweet all rolled into one. It felt like she was doing it for herself, not for any other reason or to gain fame, she didn’t need that. You knew the strength and vulnerability was coming from within, and that beauty shone from within.”

Scout Willis, Tallulah Willis, Demi Moore and Rumer Willis at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘The Substance’ on Sept. 16, 2024.Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock

Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock

Elsewhere during the conversation, Moore looked back at her famous roles in movies likeGhost,G.I. JaneandIndecent Proposal, as well as herlatest performance inThe Substance. On that subject, the star spoke more about aging and the pressure put on women in Hollywood.

Moore spoke to the wisdom her daughter Scout, now 33, shared that resonated with the actress' current perspective of body “acceptance.”

“My middle daughter Scout said at one point, ‘I want to quit wasting time focusing on all that I’m not when I could be celebrating all that I am,’ " recalled Moore, who also shares Rumer, 36, and Tallulah, 30, with ex-husbandBruce Willis.

Moore added that she learned to love and appreciate where she is “in the present moment at any given time,” saying, “There are things I found wrong at 20, at 30, at 40, 50, and I can still look [for flaws]. The difference today is my ability to catch it and shift and reframe that my value is who I am, not what I do or how I look.”

source: people.com