Bruce Willis’ daughter sensed something was wrong with her dementia-stricken dad “for a long time” before he was diagnosed with a rare form of the condition.
Bruce Willis’ daughter sensed something was wrong with her dementia-stricken dad “for a long time” before he was diagnosed with a rare form of the condition
Tallulah Willis, 29, who father-of-five ‘Die Hard’ actor Bruce, 68, had with his ex-wife Demi Moore, 60, spoke about noticing the early signs he was sick before his family publicly announced his illness in March 2022 as part of a long essay she wrote for Vogue magazine.
She said: “I’ve known that something was wrong for a long time. It started out with a kind of vague unresponsiveness, which the family chalked up to Hollywood hearing loss: ‘Speak up!’ Die Hard messed with Dad’s ears.
“Later that unresponsiveness broadened, and I sometimes took it personally.”
Tallulah added she felt like her dad had “lost interest” in her when he had his two daughters, Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, eight, with his second wife, Emma Heming Willis, 44, and was struggling with an eating disorder as his condition worsened.
She said about her fear he was focusing too much on his new family: “Though this couldn’t have been further from the truth, my adolescent brain tortured itself with some faulty maths: I’m not beautiful enough for my mother, I’m not interesting enough for my father…I admit that I have met Bruce’s decline in recent years with a share of avoidance and denial that I’m not proud of.
“The truth is that I was too sick myself to handle it. For the last four years, I have suffered from anorexia nervosa, which I’ve been reluctant to talk about because, after getting sober at age 20, restricting food has felt like the last vice that I got to hold on to… by the spring of 2022, I weighed about 84 pounds.
“I was always freezing. I was calling mobile IV teams to come to my house, and I couldn’t walk in my Los Angeles neighbourhood because I was afraid of not having a place to sit down and catch my breath.”
She insisted she can now bring “an energy that’s bright and sunny” to Bruce and can “savour” time with him.
Tallulah added: “I know that trials are looming, that this is the beginning of grief, but that whole thing about loving yourself before you can love somebody else – it’s real.”
Bruce’s family announced he had frontotemporal dementia, known as FTD, in a statement signed by Emma Heming Willis, Demi Moore, and his five daughters, who also include Rumer, 34, and Scout, 31.
It said: “Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces.
“While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.
“Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead. As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.”
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