What To Know
- Bruce Willis’ daughter Rumer gave an update on his health amid his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.
- She revealed how he’s doing and how his personality has changed in recent months.
Bruce Willis is doing “OK in the context of what his reality is,” his daughter Rumer Willis revealed in a new interview. Rumer opened up about her father’s frontotemporal dementia (FTD) diagnosis on The Inside Edit podcast, and revealed how his personality has changed in recent years.
“It will never be the same as it was having a dad and how it is with my mother, [but] I love getting to go over and see him,” Rumer shared. “I’m so grateful I have a child that got to meet him. I don’t know if my sisters will have that. I’m just so grateful for all the things I do get. I’m so grateful I get to go see him.”
Rumer pointed out that her time with her famous father may be “different now,” but, at the end of the day, she’s “grateful” to still have time to spend with him. “There’s a sweetness [in him],” she revealed. “He’s always been this kind of macho dude, and now there’s just such a … fragile’s not the right word, but just a tenderness that maybe being Bruce Willis may have not allowed him in some way.”
She praised her family for “rallying together” to support Bruce and each other since he was first diagnosed with aphasia in 2022 (the more specific FTD diagnosis was revealed in 2023). The blended family includes Rumer, her two sisters, and their mom, Bruce’s ex-wife, Demi Moore, as well as the actor’s current wife Emma Heming Willis and their two children.
“We don’t do it perfectly, but we’re always striving to continue to create connection and find ways to be with each other and support each other through something that is kind of unprecedented,” Rumer admitted. “It’s wild to me that so many people come up to me and say, ‘My uncle had FTD. My dad had [it],’ and I had no idea how prevalent it was. It’s crazy.”
Rumer revealed that she took a test for Alzheimer’s and dementia recently. “I’m OK, I think,” she said. “I think they can test for Alzheimer’s and dementia, and I can’t remember exactly which one I have, but it’s like, ‘OK, there’s an average chance you can get it,’ so I just think I try to be really conscious of what I eat, what products I use on my face, sunscreen…”
Bruce retired from acting after receiving his diagnosis in 2022. He is currently receiving full-time care while living in a specialized home down the street from his wife and daughters.