Bruce Willis’ daughter shares star’s early dementia warning signs

Bruce Willis’ daughter has detailed the early dementia symptoms that are easily “dismissed” but could have explained her dad’s struggles sooner.

Bruce Willis’ daughter shares star’s early dementia warning signs. Picture: Instagram

Tallulah Willis has shared the early warning signs she and her family missed before her dad was diagnosed with dementia.

Hollywood actor Bruce Willis revealed he’d been was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the most common form of the brain disorder, in February.

Dementia can cause a range of life-changing symptoms, including loss of memory, language and ability to perform everyday functions.

Now the star’s 29-year-old daughter has revealed how easy it is to dismiss the early warning signs of the disease, explaining her family knew “something was wrong” with her dad “for a long time”.

“It started out with a kind of vague unresponsiveness, which the family chalked up to Hollywood hearing loss,” Tallulah told Vogue.

Tallulah Willis has shared her dad Bruce’s early dementia warning signs. Picture: Instagram/buuski

To deal with Bruce’s ailing hearing, family members used to tell the Die Hard star, 68, to “speak up”.

As time when on, her father’s unresponsiveness “broadened” and Tallulah said she mistakenly “took it personally”.

“He had had two babies with my stepmother, Emma Heming Willis, and I thought he’d lost interest in me,” she heartbreakingly admitted.

Bruce shares daughters Tallulah, Rumer, 34, and Scout, 31, with ex-wife Demi Moore.

He then married model Heming in 2009 and together they welcomed two daughters: Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, 9.

Emma Hemming Willis, Bruce, Tallulah, and Demi Moore together in 2008. Picture: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

The thought “tortured” her, which Tallulah said caused her to avoid the signs of her father’s declining health, a denial she now says she’s “not proud of”.

“The truth is that I was too sick myself to handle it,” she noted, revealing that she has suffered from anorexia nervosa for the last four years.

She added that she had been reluctant to discuss her eating disorder because restricting food felt like “the last vice” she could hold onto after getting sober at the age of 20.

On top of that, she was admitted to a treatment facility for depression when she was 25 and was later diagnosed with ADHD.

“While I was wrapped up in my body dysmorphia, flaunting it on Instagram, my dad was quietly struggling,” she wrote.

“All kinds of cognitive testing was being conducted, but we didn’t have an acronym yet. I had managed to give my central dad-feeling canal an epidural; the good feelings weren’t really there, the bad feelings weren’t really there.”

She also recalled coming to the “devastating” realisation that her father would never give a speech about her “at [her] wedding”.

Bruce was diagnosed with FTD a year after revealing he was a battling language disorder. Picture: DOMINICK REUTER / AFP

But as her own health issues started to improve, Tallulah said it enabled her to finally able to be present in her relationship with Bruce.

“In the past I was so afraid of being destroyed by sadness, but finally I feel that I can show up and be relied upon,” she said.

“I can savour that time, hold my dad’s hand, and feel that it’s wonderful.

“I know that trials are looming, that this is the beginning of grief, but that whole thing about loving yourself before you can love somebody else — it’s real.”

Tallulah said she now takes heaps of photos with her dad when they are together. Picture: Instagram

These days, Tallulah is grateful for every moment she has left with her father and said she takes “tons of photos” whenever she sees her dad.

She added that Bruce still knows who she is and “lights up” when she enters the room but acknowledged “this thing happening with my dad that can shift so quickly and unpredictably”.

The Pulp Fiction actor, who retired from acting in March 2022, had originally been diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that affects a specific area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension, a year before his FTD diagnosis.

The celebrity family has rallied to support the 68-year-old. Picture: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for goop

Despite the “painful” discovery Bruce had FTD, the family said it was a “relief to finally have a clear diagnosis”, in a lengthy statement on the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration 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,” they continued.

There are no known treatments for the disease but patients often seek assistance with psychologists to help manage changes in behaviour and mood.

In Australia, 10-15 people for every 100,000 will be diagnosed with FTD, according to the Australian Fronto-Temporal Dementia Association.

There are limited specialists, FTD clinics, and FTD specific services in Australia compared with the US and Europe, which adds to the burden of Australians living with FTD.