Bruce Willis’s daughter Rumer has shared a heartbreaking update about the actor’s health in a moving Father’s Day post.
On Sunday (15 June), Rumer honoured her Die Hard star dad, 70, with a series of photos – and expressed her struggle with being unable to converse with him about his life amid his dementia diagnosis.
The Willis family announced that the Pulp Fiction actor had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a degenerative brain condition that impacts communication and behaviour, in February 2023.
They described FTD as a “cruel disease” for which there is no cure.
On Sunday, 36-year-old Rumer, whose mother is Demi Moore, wrote on Instagram: “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.”
Rumer, hinting that Bruce’s memory had worsened, said she yearns to have enquired more about her dad’s career.
“I wish I asked you more questions while you could still tell me about it all,” she continued.
However, Rumer said she “knows you wouldn’t want me to be sad today”, adding: “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.
“I can still hold you and hug you and kiss your cheek and rub your head. I can tell you stories.”
Rumer also said Bruce’s “eyes light up” whenever he sees his two-year-old granddaughter Louetta.
“I will be grateful for every moment I have with you,” she continued, stating: “I love you so much dad, happy Father’s Day.”
Rumer finished her post by “sending love to all those who are in the boat with me or have lost their fathers”.
Her tribute arrived shortly after Bruce’s wife, the model and dementia campaigner Emma Heming Willis, praised the actor for showing “resilience, unconditional love, and the quiet strength in simply being present”.
Bruce and Emma, who have been married for 14 years, share two children – Mabel Ray, 13, Evelyn, 11, and Mabel Ray, 13. As well as Rumer, Bruce also shares Scout, 33 and Tallulah, 31, with Hollywood star Moore.
In February, Rumer told her followers that Bruce was “doing great”, adding that the closeness of their family has been helping them through his diagnosis.
