Rumer Willis gives update on dad Bruce’s dementia diagnosis: He’s so ‘beloved’
Bruce Willis’ eldest daughter, Rumer Willis, shared an update on his dementia diagnosis at the premiere of her new film, “My Divorce Party,” in Beverly Hills.
“He’s great. Yeah, yeah, doing OK. Thank you so much for asking,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
“I think, for me, through this experience, what’s been so incredible is my dad is so beloved, and that’s been so evident in the transparency with which we’ve been sharing,” she went on.
“And I think if there’s any way sharing our experience brings hope — whatever comes forward as a family — that can have an effect and bring any sort of hope, comfort to someone else experiencing that, then to me, that’s … everything.”
Rumer, 35, and the rest of her blended family announced in 2022 that Bruce, 69, was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia. In February 2023, they’d go on to reveal that his condition worsened and that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
Rumer is one of Bruce’s daughters with Demi Moore, 61. The exes were married from 1987 to 2000 and are also parents of Scout, 32, and Tallulah, 30.
Bruce also shares daughters Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, 9, with his second wife, Emma Heming Willis, 45. The couple have been married since 2009.
Rumer became a mom herself when she welcomed daughter Louetta Isley Thomas Willis in April 2023 with her partner, singer Derek Richard Thomas.
“[They’re] so sweet. They’re the cutest,” the “Dancing With the Stars” alum said of seeing her parents as grandparents. “Everyone in my family is literally obsessed with her.”
“It’s funny. My mom will be like, ‘You know you should do this with her.’ And I’m like, ‘Actually, based on what I’ve been reading, you don’t do that anymore.’ But I think there’s just more information than there was,” she continued.
“But what I think is amazing is when you’re in that transition from maiden to motherhood, and you have a really tight relationship with your mom, there’s an interesting separation that occurs almost as you are kind of discovering your own path of the mother. And it creates separation in an interesting way because there are things obviously that I take from her and that I love, but there’s also stuff that I really want to discover myself.”
In February, Rumer told the New York Post that Bruce’s “face lights up” when he sees his granddaughter.
“The most perfect example of who my dad is in real life is his character on ‘Moonlighting.’ So charming, so funny, so silly … kind of mischievous glint in his eye and, [he is] kind and sweet. And so I feel like that’s really the epitome of who my dad is. And that is so true to this day,” she exclusively told The Post at the time.
“He’s so incredibly loving and kind. My dad is absolutely the reason I like my taste in music [and for] some of my humor,” she continued. “Both of my parents are so silly.”
“His face lights up when he sees Louetta,” Rumer said of her famous dad. “And I’m just so grateful to have that kind of spark of mischief and fun and and play no matter what age I am.”
Bruce also has a “mix” of nicknames as the grandad in the family.
“It was either Papu or Grand-Daddio,” she told the Post. “Which I’m a big fan, because when we were kids we called my dad Daddio.” Moore, for her part, goes by “Yaya.”