Bruce Willis’ daughter, Tallulah, has revealed some bitter details about her father’s struggle with aphasia and said she knew something was wrong with him ‘a long time ago’ but thought it was due to his second marriage with Emma Heming Willis and their kids.
In an essay written for Vogue, the 29-year-old actress recalled her star dad’s ‘vague unresponsiveness’, which her family chalked up to his ‘Hollywood hearing loss.’
She went on to explain how she used to take everything personally and even blamed his attitude on his second marriage and his children with Emma Heming Willis.
“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. Though this couldn’t have been further from the truth, my adolescent brain tortured itself with some faulty math: I’m not beautiful enough for my mother, I’m not interesting enough for my father,” she wrote.
Tallulah revealed that she had met her father’s degenerative illness only recently as she was struggling with various health issues.
“The truth is that I was too sick myself to handle it. For the last four years, I have suffered from anorexia nervosa, which I’ve been reluctant to talk about because, after getting sober at age 20, restricting food has felt like the last vice that I got to hold on to,” she penned.
“When I was 25, I was admitted to a residential treatment facility in Malibu to address the depression that I had lived with through my adolescence. It was a largely therapeutic experience; for the first time, I grieved the 15-year-old misfit me, the ugly duckling,” the actress added.
The Whole Ten Yards alum said while she was wrapped up in her body dysmorphia, her father was struggling with his dementia, and his health was declining. In 2021, she attended a wedding on Martha’s Vineyard and saw the bride’s father make a moving speech for his daughter, and it hit her that she would never get that moment.
“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,” she wrote.
After years of struggling with her own mental and physical health, Tallulah said now she is focused on cherishing as many memories with her dad as she can, and whenever she visits his place, she takes a lot of photos of him and even saves his voice notes on her hard drive.
“I’m like an archaeologist, searching for treasure in stuff that I never used to pay much attention to. I have every voicemail from him saved on a hard drive. I find that I’m trying to document, to build a record for the day when he isn’t there to remind me of him and of us.”
Earlier this year, Willis’ family shared a heartbreaking update on his health and revealed that the Die Hard actor was diagnosed with untreatable frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
“Our family wanted to start by expressing our deepest gratitude for the incredible outpouring of love, support and wonderful stories we have all received since sharing Bruce’s original diagnosis. In the spirit of that, we wanted to give you an update about our beloved husband, father and friend since we now have a deeper understanding of what he is experiencing,” the family wrote in an Instagram update.
“Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD). Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”
The Willis family thanked all the fans and well-wishers for their love and gratitude and requested prayers.
The family including the star’s ex-wife Demi Moore, second wife, Emma Hemming Willis, and his daughters – Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah shared a complete statement regarding Bruce’s new diagnosis and posted on The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration‘s website.
“FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone. For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia, and because getting the diagnosis can take years, FTD is likely much more prevalent than we know. Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead,” they wrote.
“As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.”
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