Rumer Willis has shared her thoughts on how her father, Bruce Willis, has become more “tender” since his diagnosis with dementia. During an interview with The Inside Edit podcast, which was published on Monday, Rumer, 37, expressed her gratitude for the time she gets to spend with her father.
“I’m so grateful I get to go see him,” she said. “Even though it’s different now, I’m so grateful.” She added, “There’s a sweetness. He’s always been this kind of macho dude and there’s like a — fragile is not the right word but — just a tenderness that maybe being Bruce Willis might not have allowed him in a certain way.”
Bruce, 71, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in February 2023. This followed an initial diagnosis of aphasia in March 2022. The Die Hard actor is currently receiving 24-hour care for the degenerative disease and lives separately from his wife, Emma Heming Willis, and their two young daughters.
Rumer is the eldest daughter of Bruce and Demi Moore, who were married from 1987 to 2000. The couple also has two other children, Scout Willis, 34, and Tallulah, 32. Although FTD is considered one of the rarest forms of dementia, Rumer mentioned that the condition is more “prevalent” than she initially thought.
“It’s wild to me,” she told podcast host Maeve Reilly during their conversation. “So many people come up to me now and they say, ‘My uncle had FTD. My dad had this.’”
As a single mother to her daughter Louetta, Rumer shared an update about her father’s condition last November. She revealed that there are times when he does not remember who she is.
“The truth is that anybody with FTD is not doing great,” she said in part on Instagram. “But he’s doing okay in terms of somebody who’s dealing with frontotemporal dementia, you know what I mean?”
She continued: “The only way I feel like I could answer that in a way that’s like he’s doing great… How do I say this? It’s like those parameters don’t really work anymore in my mind, so this is an interesting question.”
Rumer added: “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 give him a hug, whether he recognizes me or not, that he can feel the love I’ve given him, and I can feel it back from him.”
“That I still see a spark of him and he can feel the love that I’m giving and so that feels really nice.”
