Bruce Willis Health Update From Daughter Gives Fans Hope

“He is the same, which I think in this regard I’ve learned is the best thing you can ask for,” Tallulah said in regard to her 68-year-old father. Bruce Willis’ family announced early last year that the actor had been diagnosed with FTD or frontotemporal dementia—a condition that affects the language and comprehension parts of the brain. According to Tallulah, Bruce has yet to suffer any measurable decline in his ability to recognize people or comprehend where he is.

I see love when I’m with him. And it’s my dad, and he loves me, which is really special.” Tallulah told Barrymore. The 29-year-old also said that she’s been spending a lot of time with her father, just listening to music and “sitting in that energy of love,” as the younger Willis put it. Tallulah also confessed to helping Bruce Willis archive all his “little trinkets and doodads.”

Tallulah told Drew Barrymore that helping her father catalog all of his baubles has helped her to heal. While she was there, Tallulah also explained why her family had made the decision to be so transparent about Bruce Willis’ health issues. She cited that part of it was just who her family is but that another important reason was because of the Willis clan’s desire to raise the public’s awareness of frontotemporal dementia.

 “If we can take something that we’re struggling with as a family to help other people, to turn it around to make something beautiful about it, that’s really special for us,” admitted Tallulah.

Bruce Willis announced his retirement in early 2022, citing aphasia—a type of FTD—as the reason. The next year, in February of 2023, Willis’s family released a statement announcing that the actor had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. This announcement came after several incidents on set involving a visibly confused Willis.

Colleagues had been noticing Bruce Willis acting strangely since as early as 2020. Some of the incidents described by those on set include the “unexpected firing of a loaded gun with a blank cartridge,” “significant reduction in speech/dialogue during filming,” and  “questioning why he (Willis) was on the filming location.” Willis’ family admitted publically that the actor’s condition had progressed and that “challenges with communication” were just one of the elements of FTD he was dealing with.

Last month, Glenn Gordon Caron, creator of the 1985 Bruce Willis, Cybil Shepherd romantic comedy Moonlighting, revealed that he had visited his old friend and that Willis was “not totally verbal.” Caron did admit, however, that Willis still recognized him much the same way Tallulah had said.

Bruce Willis’ last completed film was Assassin (2023), the last in a string of “bad” movies Willis agreed to make in the last years before his retirement in hopes of earning enough money for his family to live off of once he became unable to act. Willis was originally ridiculed for his poor role choices to the point where the Golden Raspberry Awards had a category called Worst Bruce Willis Performance in a 2021 Movie.

When it was revealed to the public why Bruce had agreed to be in so many movies that were frankly beneath him as an actor, the Razzies retracted its Bruce Willis category believing it to be in bad taste.