Rumer Willis Shares Update on Dad Bruce Willis amid His Dementia Diagnosis

Rumer Willis says it’s not so simple to answer how her dad Bruce Willis is doing.

Rumer, 37, who is the eldest daughter of the Die Hard star, 70, and Demi Moore, 62, opened up about the challenges that come with describing how her father’s care has been progressing after he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2022.

She responded to a question during a Q&A on her Instagram Stories from a fan who asked how her dad was “doing,” saying, “People always ask me this question and I think it’s kind of a hard one to answer because the truth is that anybody with FTD is not doing great.”

She continued, “But he’s doing okay in terms of somebody who’s dealing with frontotemporal dementia, you know what I mean?”

Rumer went on to say that she thinks normal “parameters” for how a person’s wellbeing is “don’t really work anymore in my mind” when it comes to her father, so this is “always an interesting question” for her to answer. 

However, she eventually answered the question in a second clip on her Instagram Stories, noting that she’s thankful of the time she gets to spend with her father and her 2-year-old daughter Louetta at his home, and that she can still give her dad a hug.

“The answer that I would give is I’m so happy and grateful that I still get to go and hug him,” said Rumer. “I’m so grateful that when I go over there and I give him a hug, whether he recognizes me or not, he can feel the love I’ve given him and I can feel it back from him.” 

“[I’m so happy] that I still see a spark of him and he can feel the love that I’m giving and so that feels really nice,” she added. “Yeah, I just feel grateful that I get to go over there with Louetta, 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.”

Rumer has previously opened up about the challenges of not being able to connect with her father in the way she did prior to his diagnosis — which has no treatment or cure. In an Instagram post in June for Father’s Day, she admitted, “today is hard.”

“I wish I asked you more questions while you could still tell me about it all,” she continued. “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.”

The Sixth Sense actor also shares daughters Scout LaRue Willis, 34, and Tallulah Belle Willis, 31, with ex-wife Moore and daughters Mabel Ray Willis, 13, and Evelyn Penn Willis, 11, with wife Emma Heming Willis.

Emma, 49, has also been candid about the difficulties of dealing with Bruce’s diagnosis. In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE in September ahead of the release of her book, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, Emma shared how her husband’s early dementia symptoms led to her thinking “something I was doing in our marriage wasn’t working anymore.”

“FTD doesn’t scream, it whispers,” she told PEOPLE in a cover story. “It’s very gray to know where Bruce stopped and where his disease kicked in. I started noticing his stutter started to come back, but I never in a million years thought that was a symptom of FTD. Conversations weren’t really aligning anymore, and our relationship started to shift. It was hard to put my finger on why and what was happening.”

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The mom of two also told Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired on Good Morning America in August that while Bruce’s brain was “failing him, there are still “moments” where he displays flashes of his charismatic personality to his family.

“He’s holding our hands. We’re kissing him. We’re hugging him,” the author and caregiver said. “He is reciprocating. You know, he is into it.”

“And so that’s all I need, you know?” she said. “I don’t need him to know that I am his wife, and we were married on this day, and this is what it — I don’t need any of that. I just wanna feel that I have a connection with him. And I do.”