Rumer on Why It's Complicated Explaining How Dad Bruce Willis Is Doing, What
The daughter of the beloved film icon would love to just be able to say he’s doing great, but the reality is a bit more nuanced than that, as she breaks down what her life with him is like now.
One of the most common questions the children of Bruce Willis — and all of those in his circle like wife Emma Heming and ex-wife Demi Moore — hear is fans asking how the beloved actor is doing. As Rumer Willis recently explained to her fans, it’s not an easy question to answer.
The easy answer is to say that he’s doing fine, because in many ways he is. He is living in a separate house near his family with full-time caretakers and he is surrounded by loved ones on a daily basis. But the reality is that amid his ongoing frontotemporal dementia diagnosis, there is no simple answer to this common question.
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Rumer talked about it a bit in a recent Q&A on her Instagram Stories, as detailed by Just Jared, when a fan asked her how he was doing. “People always ask me this question and I think it’s kind of a hard one to answer,” Rumer replied, being completely honest.
She explained that “the truth is that anybody with FDT is not doing great, but he’s doing okay in terms of somebody who is dealing with frontotemporal dementia.”
That’s about the best way to say it as succinctly as possible but what does that mean? And so Rumer took a beat to try and figure out how to frame that in a way that makes sense when the answer wants to be that he’s doing great.
“The only way I feel like I could answer that in a way that’s like he’s doing great,” she said, before pausing and asking, “how do I say this?”
Finally, she went on to explain, “It’s like those parameters don’t really work anymore in my mind, so this is an interesting question.” What that means is that she’s thankful that her father is still with her, even if he doesn’t always recognize her when they’re together which is a very complicated feeling.
“The answer that I would give is that I’m so happy and grateful that I still get to go and hug him,” she told her followers. “I’m so grateful that when I go over there and 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, that I still see a spark of him and he can feel the love that I’m giving and so that feels really nice.”
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She also expressed appreciation that her daughter Louetta, 2, has been able to develop a relationship with her grandfather, adding, “I just feel grateful that I get to go over there with Lou and we get to spend time with him, and I get to feel the love that he has for me and that he puts out for me and that I can love him and be with him.”
It’s not the first time Rumer has tried to put into words the complex situation that she and her family find themselves in with Bruce. In June, she took to her Instagram with a Father’s Day post featuring a series of photos of her with Bruce through the years, sharing her ache that she can’t share with him their lives in the same way anymore.
“I feel a deep ache in my chest to talk to you and tell you everything I’m doing and what’s going on in my life. To hug you and ask you about life and your stories and struggles and successes,” she wrote.
She lamented, ” I wish I asked you more questions while you could still tell me about it all. But I know you wouldn’t want me to be sad today so I’ll try to just be grateful reminding myself how lucky I am that you’re my dad and that you’re still with me and I can still hold you and hug you and kiss your cheek and rub your head I can tell you stories.”
Here as well, Rumer shared her appreciation of the connection between Bruce and her daughter, adding, ” I can watch the way your eyes light up when you see Louetta I will be grateful for every moment I have with you.”
