Rumer Willis Describes How Dad Bruce Willis, 71, Has Changed

Bruce Willis’ oldest daughter, Rumer Willis, 37, says her father is OK. She is clear about what that means.

Speaking on the May 18 episode of The Inside Edit podcast with stylist Maeve Reilly, Rumer said Bruce is “OK in the context of what his reality is,” as he continues to live with frontotemporal dementia. Life with him, she made clear, is not what it used to be.

“It’s not the same as it will never be the same as it was with having a dad or how it is with my mother,” she said, referring to Bruce’s ex-wife, Demi Moore, 63. “But I love getting to go over and see him.”

Willis, 71, built his career playing tough, self-possessed men. He starred as John McClane in 1988’s Die Hard and Butch Coolidge in 1994’s Pulp Fiction. His family announced in 2022 that he was stepping away from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that affects speech and communication.

In 2023, the family said doctors had given him a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. His wife, Emma Heming Willis, told AARP last September that his early symptoms appeared gradually through language and behavior changes. In her memoir, The Unexpected Journey, she writes about navigating guilt, grief and loneliness while trying to keep life steady for the couple’s two young daughters, Mabel, 14, and Evelyn, 12. In an emotional video interview with AARP, she called FTD a “terrible, terrible disease.”

On the podcast, Rumer described something she has noticed in her father that she had not seen quite the same way before. She chose her words carefully.

“There’s a sweetness,” she said. “He’s always been this kind of macho dude, and now there’s just such a, fragile is not the right word, but just like a tenderness that maybe being, you know, Bruce Willis, might not have allowed him in a certain way.” 

She also said she is grateful that her daughter, Louetta, 3, has had the chance to spend time with her grandfather.

“I’m so grateful that I have a child who got to meet him,” she said. “Because I don’t know if my sisters will have that.”

FTD is different from Alzheimer’s disease, which more commonly begins with memory loss. FTD originates in parts of the brain that govern judgment, behavior, social awareness and communication. An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Americans are living with the disease, though the true number may be higher because FTD is frequently misdiagnosed or goes undiagnosed entirely. There is no cure and no FDA-approved treatment to slow or reverse the disease.

Rumer said the family has tried to stay connected as her father’s condition has changed.

“I’m so grateful for how our family has kind of rallied together in this way,” she said. “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.” 

Her relationship with her dad is not the same. She is thankful for it anyway.

“Even though our time together is different,” she said, “I’m so grateful still that I have this time.”