Actress Rumer Willis says the sweet, ordinary moments with her father keep coming — and she is holding on to every one. In a People interview published August 25, the 38-year-old daughter of “Die Hard” actor Bruce Willis and Demi Moore laid out what daily life looks like now for her 71-year-old father, who has frontotemporal dementia (FTD). She came back to the subject in an Instagram video shared Monday, August 24, 2026.
Rumer Willis would rather talk about what remains than what has been lost. Her father seems content, she said, and is faring about as well as anyone could hope under the circumstances — something she picks up on during visits with her three-year-old daughter, Louetta.
“When I get to see him, he sees me and [daughter] Louetta and he starts smiling,” she told the magazine.
“There’s so much love and joy and tenderness that still exists there,” she added of him. “And in terms of that, I would say that’s a huge win.” She keeps circling back to gratitude. “The most important thing for me is that I’m so grateful that I have this time with him for however many years it may be,” she said. “I’m grateful that he seems generally wonderful and, given all of the givens of our situation, that our family is just so loving and together.” There is no map for any of it, she added, because the condition presents differently in every patient.
Where She Finds Strength on the Hard Days
She has been just as candid about the difficult stretches. In the video she posted to Instagram on August 24, she said: “I really miss my dad. I miss a different version of who he was. There are some days that are just so hard.” Her aim, she explained, is to “prioritize being present with where he’s at now,” and she put the balancing act this way: “The truth is, to be strong is learning to deal with both things at the same time.”
A Diagnosis That Arrived in Stages
The family disclosed the aphasia diagnosis in a joint statement posted to Instagram on March 30, 2022 — signed by his wife, his ex-wife and all five of his daughters, and shared by Rumer Willis among them. It was the first time they had spoken publicly about his health, and it said he was stepping back from the career that had meant so much to him. Aphasia impairs a person’s ability to communicate.
More clarity came the next year. The actor’s frontotemporal dementia was announced in February 2023, putting a more specific name to what the family was facing. The disease attacks language and behavior. Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) says it typically begins with personality and behavior changes and with language problems — speaking slowly, struggling to find the right words — along with difficulty planning and organizing. Memory problems tend to come only later, unlike in more common forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s.
For decades, Bruce Willis ranked among Hollywood’s most recognizable leading men, with credits that include “Die Hard,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Armageddon,” “The Fifth Element” and “12 Monkeys.” Demi Moore, who was married to him from 1987 to 2000, starred in “Ghost,” “A Few Good Men” and “Indecent Proposal.” The couple’s children are Rumer, Scout and Tallulah.
Why She Took a Genetic Test
Watching FTD up close pushed the “Dancing with the Stars” champion to get a handle on her own health. Function, the paid health membership she announced a brand partnership with in the same August 24 post, offers more than 160 advanced lab tests along with imaging and specialized assessments; through it she took the APOE genetic test, which can indicate an increased genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. APOE is a marker of Alzheimer’s risk, not of frontotemporal dementia; the genes linked to inherited FTD are C9orf72, GRN and MAPT.
Sticking around for her daughter as long as she can is the goal, she said, and Louetta is the reason. The membership, she said, is a good starting point for anyone hoping to invest in health and longevity, and staying as healthy as possible for as long as possible is no longer optional for her.
Emma Heming Willis on His Health
Rumer Willis is not the only relative speaking publicly. An entrepreneur and author who previously worked as a model, Emma Heming Willis has talked at length about caring for her husband; the couple have been married for 17 years and share two children. She said in an ABC News special with journalist Diane Sawyer that aired in August 2025 that she was thankful he remains very much present.
“Bruce is still very mobile, Bruce is in really great health overall, it’s just his brain that is failing him,” she told Sawyer.
His eldest daughter lands in much the same place, in her own words. A dementia diagnosis brings questions nobody can answer and a timeline nobody can predict, but Rumer Willis keeps coming back to one plain fact: her father is still here. He still smiles at the sight of her and Louetta, and whatever time the family has left is time they are making the most of.
