More than 16 years after her controversial cover shot for Vanity Fair, Demi Moore speaks of the iconic nude picture posed in for photographer Annie Liebovitz while she was seven months pregnant saying it was never meant for the public eye.

"Annie had photographed me pregnant with all three (daughters). The shot that ended up being on the cover of Vanity Fair wasn't even done for the magazine. It was just for me and our family," the now Mrs. Ashton Kutcher recounts.

"Then Annie called, we kind of joked, and I said it would be amazing if they would do this on the cover."

The cover had been Vanity Fair's most controversial issue, with some retailers pulling the magazine from the stand and other selling it in a brown paper bag. It had sparked numerous complaints and debates ranging from topics of sexual objectification to celebration of empowerment.

"It did seem to give a little bit more permission to feel sexy, attractive when you're pregnant... but I really didn't expect for the response to be what it was. I was pretty shocked."

Her celebrated pregnant pictorial had inspired and had been copied by Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera when the two pop stars had been pregnant with their respective kids. It wasn't the last time Moore posed nude for the magazine. A year after, she posed again with nothing on but body paint on the cover for Vanity Fair.