Bruce Willis formally retired from acting in 2022, with that decision being attributed, at the time, to him being diagnosed with the cognitive condition aphasia. It was subsequently confirmed, however, that the now-70-year-old actor has frontotemporal dementia. Willis’ wife and older children have since been caring for him and providing occasional updates on his condition. Rumer Willis – who Bruce shares with ex-wife Demi Moore – was recently asked how he’s doing and, while it was hard for her to answer, she shared some silver linings.
The 37-year-old mother of one participated in another Q&A via her Instagram stories, during which she touched upon a variety of topics. One fan asked her how the Willis patriarch is doing at this point in his health battle. Rumer, who revealed that she’s put a lot of thought into this question due to it cropping up occasionally, explained why it’s hard to quantify whether her famous father is doing well or not:
People always ask me this question, and I think it’s kind of a hard one to answer because the truth is that anybody with FTD is not doing great. But he’s doing OK in terms of somebody who’s dealing with frontotemporal dementia, you know what I mean? The only way that I feel like I could answer that in a way that was like, ‘He’s doing great.’ How do I say this? It’s like, those parameters don’t really work anymore, I guess, in my mind. So this is always an interesting question, because I get it quite a bit, especially when I do these kind of ask-me-anything [posts].
Members of the Willis family have been candid about the challenges of caring for Bruce throughout his illness. Earlier this year, his wife, Emma Heming, explained that one of the first changes she noticed in her husband early on was that his childhood stutter returned. Although Heming said the situation has “taken a toll” on her and her family, she sees a silver lining in that the love she and Bruce share in their journey together has only grown deeper.
Rumer Willis has also opened up about the emotionally draining aspects of her father’s condition. She’s even been candid about the fact that Father’s Day is now “hard” for her. However, like Emma Heming, Willis has been choosing to be “grateful” for several reasons even amid this difficult time for her and her relatives. As the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood alum explained during her recent Q&A, she just feels fortunate to still have her dad around at all:
The answer that I would give is I’m so happy and grateful that I still get to go and hug him. I’m so grateful that when I go over there and I give him a hug, whether he recognizes me or not, he can feel the love I’ve given him, and I can feel it back from him.
Over the last few years, the Willis family has had its moments of joy amid Bruce’s health challenges. Most notably, Rumer welcomed her first child – daughter Louetta – with former partner Derek Thomas in 2023, making Bruce a grandfather. Rumer went on to express the joy she feels in seeing her father with her little girl in tow:
[I love] that I still see a spark of him and he can feel the love that I’m giving, and so that feels really nice. Yeah, I just feel grateful that I get to go over there with Louetta, and we get to spend time with him and I get to feel the love that he has for me and that he puts out for me and that I can love him and be with him.
At present, Bruce Willis is in a care facility, given the progression of his disease, as revealed by Emma Heming earlier this year. That news was met with backlash, though Heming defended that decision, explaining that it was necessary at this point in her spouse’s life. It’s honestly unfortunate that the Willis family has had to handle so much over the past few years. However, it’s heartwarming to hear that, like her relatives, Rumer is remaining upbeat and counting her blessings.