Rumer Willis, the eldest daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, shared a heartbreaking update about her father’s battle with dementia.
The 70-year-old star retired from acting in 2022 after being diagnosed with aphasia. The following year, he received a diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.
Since then, fans have been closely following updates on Willis’ health, paying attention to information shared by his family.
Rumer Willis answered a fan question about her father’s health
Responding to a fan question on Thursday (November 20), Rumer shared on social media that her father sometimes doesn’t recognize her anymore.
Still, the actress said she feels “so happy” and “so grateful” that she can still hug him.
“I’m so grateful that when I go over there, and I give him a hug, whether he recognizes me or not, that he can feel the love I’ve given him, and I can feel it back from him,” Rumer said.
She added that she still sees “a spark” in the actor, who can “feel the love that I’m giving.”
Tallulah Willis, Rumer’s sister, told The Today Show that their father is “doing stable, which in this situation is good,” though she admitted that seeing him in a debilitated state is “hard.”
“There’s painful days, but there’s so much love, and it’s really shown me to not take any moment for granted,” she continued. “I really do think that we’d be best friends. I think he’s very proud of me.”
Rumer previously said at the Beverly Hills Film Festival in May 2024 that her father was “doing OK” and expressed hope that his story could bring comfort and support to other families going through a similar situation.
“If there’s any way sharing our experience brings hope — whatever comes forward as a family—that can have an effect and bring any sort of hope, comfort to someone else experiencing that, then to me, that’s … everything.”
In addition to Rumer and Tallulah, Willis and Moore have another daughter, Scout LaRue.
It comes after the action star’s wife, Emma Hemming, announced that she had decided to move him to a second family home, as the current one, which he shared with her and his two prepubescent daughters, was not conducive to their upbringing and his mental state at the same time.
Emma has met the ensuing social media backlash with an awareness campaign.
Frontotemporal dementia is characterized by the degeneration and shrinking of the front and sides of the brain, which then results in behavioral and personality changes—and, like in Willis’ case, it affects memory, one’s ability to think, and speak.
Eating is another aspect of the patient’s life affected by the illness. One example is the so-called Banana Lady, examined by the International School of Advanced Studies in 2006.
Frontotemporal dementia is “second only to Alzheimer’s”
At some point in her life, this woman became fixated on bananas and drank liters of milk daily.
“After [she passed away], brain analysis confirmed her doctors’ diagnosis: the woman was suffering from frontotemporal dementia, a common type of dementia second only to Alzheimer’s,” Science Daily reported.
The action star was diagnosed with dementia in 2023
Image credits: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
The study noted that the woman consumed nothing else, a behavior that researcher Marilena Aiello noted may cause individuals to “lose weight because they eat a narrow range of foods in an obsessive way.”
Livewell, an organization specializing in Alzheimer’s and dementia care, points out that weight loss among patients can stem from a broad array of problems, including their inability to feed themselves and communicate their hunger, and in severe cases, they may not even realize that they are hungry.
“The truth is, a big change in appetite is often a natural part of the disease,” it states on its website.
Image credits: emmahemingwillis
Further complicating already difficult situations is the habit extending to obsessions with eating non-food items.
Dr. Elaine Eshbaugh, a gerontology and family studies professor at the University of Northern Iowa, recalls a friend’s loved one trying to eat a marble.
This signaled the need for “intense supervision” and resulted in the patient being moved into memory care.
The action star’s wife, Emma Heming, announced that she had decided to move him to a second family home
Image credits: goodmorningamerica
“Individuals living with dementia have been known to drink cleaning solution and eat Tide Pods,” the expert wrote on her website, When Dementia Knocks.
“Obviously, people who are prone to eating non-food items need intense supervision and a carefully controlled environment for their safety.”
In some cases, dementia patients overeat, and this is due to the brain losing function in the section that controls appetite
Image credits: demimoore
On the flip side, the brain disease is also noted to have the opposite effect. Frontotemporal dementia patients have been known to steal food off other people’s plates.
“These behaviors are problematic, of course, socially, but also with regard to patients’ health as they tend to gain weight,” Science Daily reported.
In other cases, the patient may forget they have eaten, be worried about the next mealtime, or even mistake thirst for hunger.
This disorder, however, may be directly connected to frontotemporal dementia, as it affects the hypothalamus, which controls appetite, among other things.
Dementia affects more than 6 million Americans, according to the NIH
Image credits: stokkete/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
“It may involve an alteration of the autonomic nervous system, characterized by an altered assessment of the body’s signals, such as hunger, satiety, and appetite,” Aiello said.
“Damage to the hypothalamus can cause a loss of inhibitory signals, causing behaviors such as overeating.”
While no mention has been made of Willis’ eating habits, he has lost his ability to communicate
Speaking to Diane Sawyer in an August 27 interview, Emma indicated that her husband had lost his memory and ability to speak.
“Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him,” she told the interviewer.
“The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt,” she noted, before saying: “And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different, a different way.”
Emma did not talk about the actor’s eating habits, although it was mentioned that he would be cared for by a 24-hour team at his separate lodgings.
Some people shared their family members’ battles with the “complicated” and “exhausting” disease
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