Bruce Willis is being 'chipped away day by day' by dementia, says daughter

28 September 2023 , 10:33

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Bruce Willis has been supported by his family

Bruce Willis' daughter, Tallulah Willis, has given an update on his dementia diagnosis in a moving essay.

The 68-year-old veteran actor suffers from frontotemporal dementia, a rare type of the horrific disease, that causes particular problems with behaviour and language. It results from damage to neurons in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. As a result, the actor stepped away from his Hollywood acting career in March and his wife Emma Heming Willis, who he wed in 2009, has been his "care partner" ever since.

And now Tallulah, Bruce's 29 year old daughter, who he shares with ex Demi Moore, has spoken further about his medical condition while also speaking about her own struggles with anorexia and diagnosis with Border Personality Disorder. Speaking about the vitriolic online trolling she had been subjected to concerning her appearance since she was a child, Tallulah admitted that she first battled with talking about these matters given that she was a "nepo baby". However, she soon realised that only she could "protect myself" because "no one is coming, not even my big, strong dad, an action hero onscreen and in my childish imagination".

Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with dementia (AFP via Getty Images)

In her new essay for Vogue, Tallulah explained that upon her dad's aphasia diagnosis in early 2022, she learned that the progressive neurological disorder "chips away at his cognition and behaviour day by day". Heartbreakingly, she added that she had known something was wrong with Bruce health-wise for a "long time", but they had previously put his "vague unresponsiveness" down to Hollywood hearing loss, telling each other ", Speak up! Die Hard messed with Dad's ears."

"Later, that unresponsiveness broadened, and I sometimes took it personally. He had had two babies with my stepmother, Emma Heming Willis, and I thought he'd lost interest in me," she wrote: "Though this couldn't have been further from the truth, my adolescent brain tortured itself with some faulty math: I'm not beautiful enough for my mother, I'm not interesting enough for my father."

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Tallulah Willis has spoken out about her dad's condition (@buuski/Instagram)

Tallulah noted that she was "not proud" of handling her dad's decline with "avoidance and denial" but noted it was down to her own struggle with anorexia, for which she was treated at a Malibu rehab. She was later diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder at Driftwood Recovery in Austin, Texas. However, along her own health journey, she had moments where she realised the severity of her dad's condition. On one occasion in 2021, she said she was at a wedding where the bride's father made a moving speech, forcing her to recognise that her dad would not be able to do the same at her wedding.

She concluded by expressing her joy that her dad "still knows who I am and lights up when I enter the room", and now her primary purpose is to make him more comfortable.

Jabeen Waheed