“It Started With Unresponsiveness”, Tallulah Willis Remembers the First Warning Signs of Bruce Willis’ Dementia

Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia after previously being told that he suffers from aphasia. However, many of his co-workers suspected he was struggling with memory since he had difficulty remembering his lines. He also seemed not fully to understand his surroundings at certain moments. Now, his daughter Tallulah opens up about the first signs that made her and her family think something wasn’t quite right.

Aphasia was just a symptom of the disorder.

“My family announced in early 2022 that Bruce Willis was suffering from aphasia, a brain-mediated inability to speak or to understand speech, and we learned earlier this year that that symptom was a feature of frontotemporal dementia, a progressive neurological disorder that chips away at his cognition and behavior day by day.”

She knew that something was wrong for a long time.

“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.’ Later that unresponsiveness broadened, and I sometimes took it personally. He had had two babies with my stepmother, Emma Heming Willis, and I thought he’d lost interest in me. Though this couldn’t have been further from the truth, my adolescent brain tortured itself with some faulty math: I’m not beautiful enough for my mother or interesting enough for my father.”

But Tallulah had issues on her own to face, so she wasn’t 100% concentrated on her father’s problem. “I admit that I have met Bruce’s decline in recent years with a share of avoidance and denial that I’m not proud of. The truth is that I was too sick myself to handle it. For the last four years, I have suffered from anorexia nervosa.”

The realization that he will never be the same.

While Bruce was being tested for his cognitive abilities, Tallulah reached a painful realization. “I had managed to give my central dad-feeling canal an epidural; the good feelings weren’t really there, the bad feelings weren’t really there. But I remember a moment when it hit me painfully: I was at a wedding in the summer of 2021 on Martha’s Vineyard, and the bride’s father made a moving speech. Suddenly I realized that I would never get that moment, my dad speaking about me in adulthood at my wedding. It was devastating.”

She takes as many pictures of him and his house as possible.

“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. 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.”

Bruce spends most of his time at his home with his family. “Thankfully, dementia has not affected his mobility. There’s always music playing. He still knows who I am and lights up when I enter the room. One difference between FTD and Alzheimer’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.”

She keeps flipping between the past and present tense when talking 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. I’ve always recognized elements of his personality in me, and I just know that we’d be such good friends if only there were more time. He was cool and charming and slick and stylish and sweet and a little wacky—and I embrace all that. Those are the genes I inherited from him.”

Tallulah mentions that her dad always enjoyed more of life and indulged in things most people don’t. “Sometimes we’d go to a restaurant, and he’d order one of everything on the menu just to have a bite of it all. He always loved a cozy couch with his feet up. Can you be 10 percent more comfortable? I think he asked himself that every day.”

Bruce has mentioned in the past that he feels blessed to have only daughters, and he has learned one super valuable thing. There are many other things we didn’t know about him that will make you love him even more.