Bruce Willis FTD Update: Rumer Willis Shares Heartfelt Reality of Loving a Hollywood Legend with Frontotemporal Dementia

Mian Hamid November 22, 2025

Bruce Willis FTD Update: Rumer Willis Shares Heartfelt Reality of Loving a Hollywood Legend with Frontotemporal Dementia

Hollywood icon Bruce Willis, the beloved actor and dad of five, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2022. Now, his eldest daughter, Rumer Willis, 37, is sharing a heartfelt, human-style perspective on the daily realities of his care, which is particularly resonant with a U.S. audience invested in the Die Hard star's journey.

Rumer, the daughter of Bruce Willis, 70, and actress Demi Moore, 62, recently opened up on Instagram Stories about the difficulty of summarizing her father's progress.

When a fan asked how her dad was “doing,” Rumer noted that it’s a tough question because, frankly, “anybody with FTD is not doing great.”

However, she offered a nuanced view, stating, “But he’s doing okay in terms of somebody who’s dealing with frontotemporal dementia, you know what I mean?” In her mind, the normal “parameters” for judging a person's well-being simply “don’t really work anymore” when dealing with this specific neurodegenerative condition, which currently has no treatment or cure.

Despite the challenges, Rumer eventually provided a beautiful, tangible answer in a second clip on Instagram Stories. Her focus shifted from his physical or cognitive state to the precious gift of connection:

“The answer that I would give is I’m so happy and grateful that I still get to go and hug him,” Rumer shared. “I’m so grateful that when I go over there and I give him a hug, whether he recognizes me or not, he can feel the love I’ve given him and I can feel it back from him.”

She expressed deep gratitude that she still sees a “spark of him” and is able to bring her 2-year-old daughter, Louetta, to her dad’s home to spend time with him. “I just feel grateful that I get to go over there with Louetta, and we get to spend time with him,” she added.

Rumer has previously been candid about the pain of not connecting with her father in the same way she did before his diagnosis. In an emotional Father’s Day Instagram post in June, she admitted the day was “hard.”

The daughter of the Sixth Sense actor wrote, "I wish I asked you more questions while you could still tell me about it all... but I know you wouldn’t want me to be sad today, 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 and I can still hold you and hug you..."

Bruce Willis is also father to daughters Scout LaRue Willis, 34, and Tallulah Belle Willis, 31, with ex-wife Demi Moore, and daughters Mabel Ray Willis, 13, and Evelyn Penn Willis, 11, with wife Emma Heming Willis.

Bruce Willis’s wife, Emma Heming Willis, 49, has also been an open book regarding the difficulties of being a caregiver through this FTD diagnosis.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE in September, ahead of the release of her book, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, Emma shared that the early dementia symptoms were subtle and often misconstrued. She initially thought the changes were due to issues in their marriage.

"FTD doesn’t scream, it whispers," she told. “It’s very gray to know where Bruce stopped and where his disease kicked in.” She mentioned noticing his stutter return and that “Conversations weren’t really aligning anymore, and our relationship started to shift.”

The author and mother of two also shared with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America in August that even though Bruce’s brain was “failing him,” he still has moments where his charismatic personality flashes through.

“He's holding our hands. We're kissing him. We're hugging him,” she said. “He is reciprocating. You know, he is into it.”

For Emma, the goal has simplified to connection, not recall: "I just wanna feel that I have a connection with him. And I do."

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