Bruce Willis dementia update as daughter Rumer says 'I have a pain in my heart'

Daily Mirror

6 hours ago

Die Hard star Bruce Willis' daughter, Rumer, paid tribute to her dad on Father's Day following his heartbreaking dementia diagnosis in 2023, which left his legion of loyal fans in shock
Bruce Willis' eldest daughter, Rumer, admitted she had a 'deep ache in her chest' as she paid tribute to her dad on Father's Day. The Die Hard star, 70, is being cared for by his family after his devastating dementia diagnosis in February 2023, which left his legion of loyal fans in shock.
Rumer often posts snaps of her dad, who she adores, on Instagram, and on Sunday told Bruce she felt "lucky" that he was her father. However, sharing a montage of photos of the pair, including a recent black and white image in which she hugs the actor tightly, she admitted she wished she'd asked the star "more questions" about his "successes and struggles" while she could.
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Captioning the post, she wrote: "Today is hard, I feel a deep ache in my chest to talk to you and tell you everything I'm doing and what's going on in my life. To hug you and ask you about life and your stories and struggles and successes. I wish I asked you more questions while you could still tell me about it all."
Rumer continued: "But I know you wouldn't want me to be sad today so I'll try to just be grateful reminding myself how lucky I am that you're my dad and that you're still with me and I can still hold you and hug you and kiss your cheek and rub your head I can tell you stories."
Revealing Bruce's close bond with her daughter, Louetta, the mum-of-one concluded: "I can watch the way your eyes light up when you see Louetta I will be grateful for every moment I have with you. I love you so much dad, happy Father's Day. Sending love to all those who are in the boat with me or have lost their fathers."
Hollywood A-lister, Bruce, is known for his iconic action-packed roles in movies such as Die Hard, Red and Glass. However, the star's life is very different now after stepping away from the spotlight.
Towards the end of his career, he was due to star in one of his last action roles, Out Of Death. The star had a huge part in the film, however it was suddenly made smaller, with director, Mike Burns, writing in an email to the screenwriter: "We need to abbreviate his dialogue a bit so that there are no monologues, etc."
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We now know Bruce had been diagnosed with aphasia, with the then 67-year-old's family later revealing the star would be retiring from acting. The cognitive disorder affects a person's ability to speak, understand, read and write.
The following year, in February 2023, it was confirmed that Bruce's condition had progressed and that he had a definitive diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia, aka FTD.
FTD is a progressive brain disease, which causes parts of the brain to stop working and deteriorate over time. Depending on where it starts in the brain, the condition affects behaviour as well as the ability to speak and understand others.
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In an October 2024 interview with Town & Country, Bruce's wife, Emma Heming Willis, revealed that her husband's language had changed. However, the actor had a childhood stutter and Emma initially assumed the sudden changes in his speech were to do with that.
'As his language started changing, it (seemed like it) was just a part of a stutter, it was just Bruce. Never in a million years would I think it would be a form of dementia for someone so young,' she said.
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Adding that she didn't know if Bruce was aware of his condition or not, Emma, who recently posted a video supporting National Caregivers Day, said: 'I say that FTD whispers, it doesn't shout. It's hard for me to say, 'This is where Bruce ended, and this is where his disease started to take over''.
Meanwhile, Bruce's youngest daughter Talullah heartbreakingly revealed that her dad finds it so difficult to communicate, she knew he would never be able to make a Father of the Bride speech at her wedding. Opening up about the painful revelation, Tallulah said the family initially thought Bruce's behaviour was down to hearing loss from all the explosions on the set of Die Hard before telling Vogue magazine: '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."
Tallulah finally realised her father's health was declining when she was at a wedding and the father of the bride gave a heartfelt speech. She shared: "Suddenly I realised that I would never get that moment, my dad speaking about me in adulthood at my wedding. It was devastating,' she recalled. 'I left the dinner table, stepped outside, and wept in the bushes.'