Demi Moore Looks Back on Landmark Vanity Fair Cover

In Moore’s mind, the reaction to the photo came from a ridiculously puritanical place. “Why is it that we have to deny that we had sex?” the star of 1995’s The Scarlet Letter asked. “That’s the fear, right, that if you show your belly, that means, oh, my gosh, you’ve had sex.”

This isn’t the first time that cover has come up in recent days. Speaking with Interview earlier this week, Moore also addressed the now-legendary shot. “Obviously, we did some images clothed, but at the end of the shoot, we did other ones of me nude. I remember saying to Annie [Leibovitz], ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if they used this for the cover?’”

“Then two weeks later,” Moore continued, “Annie calls me to say, ‘Hey, I’m sending you the image. How would you feel about letting them use this for the cover? Or we could do the one of your hand covering your breast.’ It’s not that I was entirely naive, but I never imagined it would have the impact that it did, because I was just reflecting how I felt—that women had not had an opportunity to express themselves while pregnant.”

The photo unleashed a new era for celebrities who are expecting, former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown later said. “Stars who are pregnant since, all want to do that Demi Moore shot,” Brown told CNBC in a 2018 interview. These days, “pregnant stars want to say, [this is] my rite of passage,” Brown said. “I get to do my Demi Moore cover.”