The cougar's revenge: Demi aims 'to punish Kutcher by grabbing his fortune'

By Sharon Churcher


Demi Moore is determined to grab a slice of Ashton Kutcher’s £90 million fortune – in revenge for the betrayal that led her to seek a divorce.

Miss Moore, 49, once dubbed a cougar who fell for an ambitious toyboy, is said to have instructed her lawyers to ‘punish him financially’.

Her edict is in spite of a pre-nuptial contract with Kutcher, 33 – which she insisted on when they married in 2005.

Happier times: Demi Moore with her husband Ashton Kutcher pictured at a Hollywood premiere in 2008


At the time she wanted to prevent him ever seeking a share of her £97 million pot of assets. Back then, Kutcher, the son of a mid-western factory worker, was just beginning his acting career while Miss Moore had a fortune built up from roles in hit films including Indecent Proposal and Disclosure.

In addition she had a £50 million divorce settlement from her second husband, Die Hard star Bruce Willis. But now Miss Moore’s career is on the wane and Kutcher is the one who commands major fees.

He earns £500,000 an episode playing an internet billionaire in the TV sitcom Two And A Half Men and as much as £4million a year as a successful investor in new technology projects, including Skype.

‘With a pre-nuptial agreement, Ashton should be sitting pretty,’ a source close to Miss Moore’s entourage told The Mail on Sunday last night.

‘These agreements are designed to protect one’s earnings during the marriage as well as one’s pre-nuptial assets.

‘But Demi is furious, raging in fact – you only have to look at every photo you see of her to see the toll Ashton’s cheating has taken on her.

‘She wants to punish him financially because of the way he has broken her heart. She is talking about going after a share of what he has earned since their marriage on the grounds that she contributed to much of what he has achieved.

‘She is going to give him a bitter fight and, whether or not she wins, it will be an expensive lesson for him.’

Miss Moore originally consulted a divorce lawyer in early October after Kutcher allegedly had unprotected sex on their sixth wedding anniversary with Sara Leal, a 23-year-old Texan blonde, following a drunken hot-tub party.

It was alleged to be the second occasion he had publicly humiliated her – Brittney Jones, 21, had bragged that he seduced her at a Los Angeles home he shares with Miss Moore.

The actress’s frequent travels – she also has residences in New York and an Idaho mountain resort – ‘have made it easy for Ashton to go on living like a bachelor’, a source close to the couple said. ‘But she has to travel for her work and she believes he just totally violated her trust.’

The couple went to Kabbalah marriage counselling after Kutcher begged for a second chance. They also spent a weekend on a Caribbean atoll, Parrot Cay, where they were lent a villa by Bruce Willis, who remains one of his ex-wife’s closest friends and has helped bring up their three daughters.

‘She was a wreck,’ the source said. ‘She believes strongly in marriage and she really didn’t want to spend her middle years alone. But in the end, she just couldn’t see any way of making things work. Bruce told her he is in her corner.’

A leading US family law expert, Raoul Felder, warned last night that the actress faces an expensive battle. ‘There are very few grounds for overturning a pre-nuptial agreement,’ he said. ‘The only people likely to win are the lawyers for the wife and the toyboy husband, who will collect huge legal fees.’

Publicists for Miss Moore and Kutcher did not respond to requests for comment.


source:dailymail