Demi and Ashton Divorce: What’s Next for the Lovelorn Couple?
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore’s six-year marriage came to an end Thursday in one carefully worded statement issued by Moore, but the two halves of a former Hollywood couple are continuing on with business as usual, in the public eye.
Kutcher, 33, was all smiles Friday on the set of his hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men,” less than 24 hours after the divorce was made public.
Moore, 49, meanwhile, reportedly dealt with fallout from the divorce by retreating to Hawaii.
But as the two stars tried to go on with lives as usual publicly, new private details have emerged suggesting Moore knew of her husband’s affairs, and resisted one last-ditch gift by Kutcher to save their marriage.
Celebrity website TMZ reports Kutcher picked out a 2012 Lexus hybrid car to give to Moore on her birthday Nov. 11, less than two weeks before she would announce their divorce. The eco-friendly gift reportedly cost Kutcher upwards of $100,000, but didn’t save their affair.
In her divorce statement, Moore did not mention the gift, but did cryptically allude to the philandering charges against her husband that two months ago sparked the first reports of unrest between the couple.
“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,” she wrote.
In a new interview with celebrity website TMZ, Brittney Jones, one of Kutcher’s former mistresses, says she felt “vindicated” by the divorce, and claims that Moore knew about their affair.
“For so long people have thought that I was dishonest or just making up my passionate nights with Ashton, when in fact I was being used,” Jones, whom reportedly met Kutcher last year after in a bowling alley, told TMZ.
“Ashton told me that both he and Demi had an ‘open relationship’ and that he was not in fact cheating,” she said. “Now I can tell all the facts about how Ashton really was, and hopefully people will believe my side of the story.”
Kutcher’s response to Moore’s divorce statement came via Twitter, where the two had played out much of their love affair for their millions of followers.
“I will forever cherish the time I spent with Demi,” Kutcher wrote. “Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes they fail. Love and Light, AK.”
Moore, who wrote under the handle @MrsKutcher, has yet to chang her Twitter name or respond to the allegations from Kutcher’s alleged mistresses.
She is, however, reportedly throwing herself into both work and the task of dividing the couple’s multimillion-dollar fortune.
At stake for the couple, who signed a pre-nuptial agreement when they married in 2005, is upwards of $100 million, according to reports.
“She has a very good nest egg. You forget that at one time she was the highest paid woman in films,” Ian Drew, senior editor for US Weekly, told ABC News. “And his worth has grown exponentially since they were married.”
“Remember, when they started, he was just that guy from ‘That ’70s Show’ and ‘Punk’d,’” Drew said. “Now he has hit movies and he’s on ‘Two and a Half Men.’”
A Forbes analyst put Moore’s 2011 earnings in the $5 million range, while Kutcher has earned an estimated $7 million on just “Two and a Half Men” alone, reports E! News.
Up next for Moore is a drama “Another Happy Day,” out Dec. 8, followed by “LOL,” a star-studded comedy featuring Miley Cyrus and Ashley Greene that will premier next year.
In addition to his work on “Two and a Half Men,” Kutcher will, like Moore, be back on the big screen. His movie, the star-studded romantic-comedy “New Year’s Eve” will premier Dec. 9.