Tallulah Willis, daughter of actor Bruce Willis, shared what she noticed in the early signs of his dementia.
In an emotional essay for Vogue, Tallulah Willis, 29, spoke openly about his diagnosis.
âMy Familyannounced in early 2022 that Bruce Willis was suffering from aphasia, a brain-mediated inability to speak or to understand speech, and we learned earlier this year that that symptom was a feature of frontotemporal dementia, a progressive neurological disorder that chips away at his cognition and behavior day by day,â she said.
She explained she had âknown that something was wrong for a long time.â Her fatherâs symptoms âstarted out with a kind of vague unresponsiveness, which the Family chalked up to Hollywood hearing loss: âSpeak up! âDie Hardâ messed with Dadâs ears.ââ
âLater that unresponsiveness broadened, and I sometimes took it personally. He had had two babies with my stepmother, Emma Heming Willis, and I thought heâd lost interest in me,â she admitted.
As a teenager, she took this as a sign of rejection toward her.
âThough this couldnât have been further from the truth, my adolescent brain tortured itself with some faulty math: Iâm not beautiful enough for my mother, Iâm not interesting enough for my father,â Tallulah Willis continued.
Initially, she explained it was hard for her to accept her fatherâs diagnosis as she was battling her own Health issues with ADHD, depression, and anorexia nervosa.
Amid her personal struggles, Tallulah Willis observed her father âquietly struggling.â
âAll kinds of cognitive testing was being conducted, but we didnât have an acronym yet. I had managed to give my central dad-feeling canal an epidural; the good feelings werenât really there, the bad feelings werenât really there,â she noted.
Tallulah Willis also revealed the moment her fatherâs condition hit home.
She shared:
âI was at a wedding in the summer of 2021 on Marthaâs Vineyard, and the brideâs father made a moving speech. Suddenly I realized that I would never get that moment, my dad speaking about me in adulthood at my wedding. It was devastating. I left the dinner table, stepped outside, and wept in the bushes. And yet I remained focused on my body. 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 couldnât walk in my Los Angeles neighborhood because I was afraid of not having a place to sit down and catch my breath.â
Going forward, she stated her focus now is on how she can make her father as comfortable as possible. She said she is savoring each moment following the birth of her sister, Rumer Willisâ, daughter.
âIt wasnât easy growing up in such a famous Family, struggling as I did to find a patch of light through the long shadows my parents cast. But more and more often I feel like Iâm standing in that light,â she expressed.
She continued, âIn April, my older sister Rumer had a baby girl, Louetta, and Bruce and Demi became grandparents. Thereâs this little creature changing by the hour, and thereâs this thing happening with my dad that can shift so quickly and unpredictably.â
âIt feels like a unique and special time in my Family, and Iâm just so glad to be here for it,â she concluded.
On Feb. 16, 2022, Emma Heming Willis announced on behalf of the Willis Family the âDie Hardâ actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
