Bruce Willis’ condition is ‘the same,’ which daughter Tallulah says is ‘best thing you can ask for’
Bruce Willis’ daughter Tallulah Willis is sharing an update regarding her dad’s health after the “Die Hard” actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) earlier this year.
“He has a really aggressive cognitive disease, a form of dementia that’s very rare,” Tallulah said on Wednesday’s episode of the “Drew Barrymore Show,” adding, “He is the same, which I think, in this regard, I’ve learned is the best thing you can ask for.”
Tallulah is the youngest daughter of Bruce and actress Demi Moore, who were married from 1987 to 2000. They are also parents Tallulah’s older sisters, Scout and Rumer Willis. In 2009, Bruce married Emma Heming and they share two young daughters.
Bruce’s family – including Heming, Moore and his five daughters – have regularly given updates on his condition after they released their statement in February that he was diagnosed with FTD.
Being open about Bruce’s progress is “important,” Tallulah said on Wednesday, adding that her family’s goal is to “spread awareness about FTD.”
“If we can take something that we’re struggling with as a family, individually, to help other people, to turn it around, to make something beautiful about it – that’s really special for us,” she said.
According to the Mayo Clinic, FTD is an “umbrella term for a group of brain disorders that primarily affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. These areas of the brain are generally associated with personality, behavior and language.”
Last month, Bruce’s friend and “Moonlighting” collaborator Glenn Gordon Caron told the New York Post that the actor is non-verbal, adding that “all those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce.”
This week, Tallulah said that “a huge part” of how she spends time with her father now is by “playing music, and just sitting in this energy of love.”
“I see love when I’m with him,” she later added. “And it’s my dad, and he loves me, which is really special.”