Bruce Willis Dementia Diagnosis, How His Daughter Is Coping
Actor Bruce Willis, who starred as NYPD detective John McClane in the Die Hard franchise of films, has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. His daughter Tallulah, 29, wrote an emotional essay for Vogue about her father’s condition and how she is coping with it.
Tallulah said that she had known something was wrong for a long time before the family shared he was suffering from aphasia, a condition that can hinder communication. This year it was revealed that the symptom was a feature of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). This progressive neurological disorder chips away at cognition and behavior day by day, CNN reported.
In her heartfelt essay, Tallulah reflected on how she initially approached her dad’s declining health with “avoidance and denial” due to her struggles. The youngest of her and Demi Moore’s three daughters penned about her battles with body dysmorphia, ADHD, and borderline personality disorder. She couldn’t accept her father’s increasing unresponsiveness until she began the journey toward mental wellness herself.
Tallulah, who currently resides in Texas with her husband and two children, went on to detail how her father’s FTD symptoms have changed over the past few years. She writes that the unresponsiveness that she had initially dismissed as Hollywood hearing loss started to broaden, and she took his lack of response personally.
The 29-year-old actress said that she and her family now work as a team to support Bruce and that it is a relief for them to have a concrete diagnosis. She states she is determined to “savor every moment with him and stay present.”
The actress also shared that when she visits her father, she takes photos of everything, documents their time together, and has all their voicemails on a hard drive.
