Bruce Willis dementia diagnosis: Daughter Tallulah reveals ‘I knew something was wrong for a long time’
Bruce Willis’s daughter has revealed how he still recognises her and “lights up” when she enters the room, as loved ones come to terms with his dementia diagnosis.
Tallulah Willis laid bare the impact the Hollywood actor’s illness has had on her family in an essay for Vogue Magazine.
The 29-year-old said she knew “something was wrong for a long time” before the family announced the Die Hard star was suffering from aphasia – a condition affecting the brain which causes speech and language difficulties – leading to his retirement.
She later learned aphasia was a feature of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) – which “chips away at his cognition and behaviour day by day”.
The Pulp Fiction actor – who shares daughters Rumer, Tallulah and Scout with ex-wife Demi Moore – was diagnosed with the progressive neurological disorder in February this year.
Willis wrote the article days after the actor’s wife, model Emma Hemming-Willis, with whom he has two daughters, Mabel, 10, and Evelyn, eight, described the “toll” on her mental health and spoke poignantly about how their time together was precious.
“It started out with a kind of vague unresponsiveness, which the family chalked up to Hollywood hearing loss. ‘Speak up! Die Hard messed with Dad’s ears,'” Willis wrote.
Later, the unresponsiveness “broadened”, she added.
“He still knows who I am and lights up when I enter the room.
“He may always know who I am, give or take the occasional bad day. One difference between FTD and Alzeimer’s dementia is that, at least early in the disease, the former is characterized by language and motor deficits, while the latter features more memory loss.
“I keep flipping between the present and the past when I talk about Bruce: he is, he was, he is, he was. That’s because I have hopes for my father that I’m so reluctant to let go of.”
Bruce and Tallulah Willis pictured at the premiere of The Whole Ten Yards in 2004 Pic: Rex
‘My father’s condition hit me painfully’
Willis admitted she has met her father’s decline in recent years with a “share of avoidance and denial that I’m not proud of” – due to various health issues including anorexia nervosa, depression and being diagnosed with ADHD, which led to rapid weight loss and body dysmorphia.
During her own health battles, the actor was “quietly struggling”, she said.
Recalling a moment when her father’s condition “hit me painfully”, she wrote: “I was at a wedding in the summer of 2021 on Martha’s Vineyard, and the bride’s father made a moving speech.
Bruce Willis in 1999
“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.”
Last spring, Willis saw her weight drop to about 84 pounds (38.1kg).
“The other night, I lay in bed thinking to myself, with an ache in my heart, what if my dad had been his full self and saw me at that size? What would he have done?
“I’d like to think that he wouldn’t have let it happen.
“Whereas my sisters and my mother have these extensive tool kits – lots of psycho-education and interpersonal skills, my dad has never been so interested in root causes, in close examination.
“Maybe he’s a stereotypical father of a certain generation in that way, a doer who, if he had understood, might have scooped me up and said, ‘This is ending now.’
“His style has always been to plug the leak even if he’s not sure why the leak is happening.
“Certainly there are benefits to examination, but there’s a beauty in his way, and I don’t think I noticed it until he was no longer capable of it.”
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
Willis is now focused on recovery and her relationship with her father – whose mobility has not been affected by his condition.
“Every time I go to my dad’s house, I take tons of photos of whatever I see, the state of things. 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,” she said.
“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.
“These days, my dad can be reliably found on the first floor of the house, somewhere in the big open plan of the kitchen-dining-living room, or in his office.
Read more:
Thousands more visitors to Alzheimer’s website after Bruce Willis diagnosis
Bruce Willis’ family praised for raising dementia awareness
“That office has always been a kind of window into what he’s most interested in at any given moment. Recently I found a scrap of paper there on which he had written, simply, ‘Michael Jordan’. I wish I knew what he was thinking. (In any case, I took it!)
“The room is filled with the nick-nacks he has collected: vintage toy cars, coins, rocks, objects made of brass. He likes things that feel heavy in the hand, that he can spin around in his fingers.”
Last month the actor and Moore became grandparents after Rumer announced the birth of her first child, Louetta Isley Thomas Willis.
Entertainment
Police should focus on ‘tackling real crime’, No 10 says, after Met Police halts non-crime hate probes
Officers should focus on “tackling real crime and policing the streets”, Downing Street has said – after the Metropolitan Police announced it is no longer investigating non-crime hate incidents.
The announcement by Britain’s biggest force on Monday came after it emerged Father Ted creator Graham Linehan will face no further action after he was arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of inciting violence over three posts he made on X about transgender issues.
Politics latest: Boris Johnson left in ‘homicidal mood’ after exam result fiasco
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said police forces will “get the clarity they need to keep our streets safe” when a review of non-crime hate incidents by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing is published in December.
“The police should focus on tackling real crime and policing the streets,” he said.
“The home secretary has asked that this review be completed at pace, working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing.
“We look forward to receiving its findings as soon as possible, so that the other forces get the clarity they need to keep our streets safe.”
He said the government will “always work with police chiefs to make sure criminal law and guidance reflects the common-sense approach we all want to see in policing”.
After Linehan’s September arrest, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said officers were in “an impossible position” when dealing with statements made online.
File pic: iStock
On Monday, a Met spokesperson said the commissioner had been “clear he doesn’t believe officers should be policing toxic culture war debates, with current laws and rules on inciting violence online leaving them in an impossible position”.
The force said the decision to no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents would now “provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations”.
Justice minister Sarah Sackman said it is “welcome news” the Met will now be focusing on crimes such as phone snatching, mugging, antisocial behaviour and violent crime.
Asked if other forces should follow the Met’s decision, she said: “I think that other forces need to make the decisions that are right for their communities.
“But I’m sure that communities up and down the country would want that renewed focus on violent crime, on antisocial behaviour, and on actual hate crime.”
The Met said it will still record non-crime hate incidents to use as “valuable pieces of intelligence to establish potential patterns of behaviour or criminality”.
Entertainment
Bob Vylan on ‘death, death to the IDF’ chant: ‘I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays’
Bob Vylan’s frontman has said he does not regret chanting “death, death to the IDF” at Glastonbury – and would do it again.
The outspoken punk duo sparked controversy with their performance at the festival in June, with the broadcast also leading to fierce criticism of the BBC.
But speaking on The Louis Theroux podcast, Bobby Vylan said he stood by the chant, adding: “I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
BBC bosses grilled over Masterchef, Bob Vylan and Gaza documentary
The US condemned the act’s “hateful tirade” and revoked their visas, with several festivals cancelling their upcoming appearances.
Vylan claimed this backlash is “minimal” compared with what the people of Palestine are going through – with many losing members of their family or forced to flee their homes.
He said: “If I have their support, they’re the people that I’m doing it for, they’re the people that I’m being vocal for, then what is there to regret. Oh, because I’ve upset some right-wing politician or some right-wing media?”
The musician revealed he was taken aback by the uproar caused by the chant, which was described by the prime minister as “appalling hate speech”.
Vylan added: “It wasn’t like we came off stage, and everybody was like (gasps). It’s just normal. We come off stage. It’s normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like: ‘That was fantastic! We loved that!'”
A spokesperson at Mindhouse Productions – which was founded by Theroux and produces The Louis Theroux podcast – told Sky News: “Louis is a journalist with a long history of speaking to controversial figures who may divide opinion. We would suggest people watch or listen to the interview in its entirety to get the full context of the conversation.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Calls for Bob Vylan concert to be cancelled
‘The response was disproportionate’
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit has since found that the broadcast of Bob Vylan’s set breached editorial standards related to harm and offence.
Theroux asked Vylan what he meant by chanting “death to the IDF” – with the musician replying: “It’s so unimportant, and the response to it was so disproportionate.
“What is important is the conditions that exist to allow that chant to even take place on that stage. And I mean, the conditions that exist in Palestine. Where the Palestinian people are being killed at an alarming rate.”
Read more from Sky News:
Maccabi fans will not be able to buy tickets to Villa match
No more investigations into ‘non-hate crime incidents’, Met says
Victim of Manchester synagogue attack speaks out
Pic: PA
He said he wanted an end to the oppression that the Palestinian people are facing – but argued chanting “end, end the IDF” wouldn’t have caught on because it doesn’t rhyme.
“We are there to entertain, we are there to play music,” Vylan added. “I am a lyricist. ‘Death, death to IDF’ rhymes. Perfect chant.”
He went on to reject claims that their set had contributed to a spike in antisemitic incidents that were reported a couple of days later.
“I don’t think I have created an unsafe atmosphere for the Jewish community. If there were large numbers of people going out and going like ‘Bob Vylan made me do this’. I might go, ‘oof, I’ve had a negative impact here’.”
Vylan’s conversation with Theroux was recorded on 1 October – before the Manchester synagogue attack, and prior to the ceasefire in Gaza coming into effect.
Entertainment
Gavin Plumb: Man jailed for plotting to rape and murder Holly Willoughby loses appeal against life sentence
A security guard jailed for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder TV star Holly Willoughby has lost an appeal against his life sentence.
Gavin Plumb was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years last year after being convicted of soliciting murder and encouraging or assisting others to rape and kidnap.
A trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard that police found bottles of chloroform and an “abduction kit” with cable ties when officers raided the 38-year-old’s flat in Harlow, Essex.
Plumb’s kidnap plan involved attempting to “ambush” Willoughby at her family home, jurors heard.
Plumb argued in his defence that it was just online chat and fantasy.
Police believed Plumb was an ‘imminent threat’ to Holly Willoughby. Pic: PA
He was caught after an undercover police officer in the US infiltrated an online group called Abduct Lovers.
He told the officer, who used the pseudonym David Nelson, that he was “definitely serious” about his plot to kidnap the former This Morning host, leaving him with the impression that there was an “imminent threat” to Willoughby.
Due to the officer’s concern over Plumb’s post, evidence was passed to the FBI, who then contacted police in the UK.
Willoughby, who asked for her victim personal statement to be private, waived her right to anonymity in connection with the charge against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the latest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024