A lengthy interview, time to pour out everything she has kept to herself so far. His father's illness, some resentment, a certain compassion, his obvious pain. Tallulah, the youngest daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, gave herself - at length - in the columns of Vogue, Wednesday, May 31. Without filter, she pours out on the health of her father, suffering from frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and aphasia - disorders that deteriorate his language skills and forced him to end his acting career in March 2022. The youngest of the Willis siblings says today that she "knew something was wrong for a long time" about him.
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At first, she was mistaken in thinking that he had "lost interest in her" after the birth of Mabel Ray and Evelyn, in 2012 and 2014, fruits of his union with his second wife Emma Heming. Faced with the behavior of the 69-year-old actor, Tallulah said he was showing "insensitivity", and began to "take him personally", even as his mental state was disintegrating. It wasn't until 2021 that she realized the gravity of it, then invited to a wedding on Martha's Vineyard. When the bride's father delivers his speech, Rumer and Scout Willis' sister bursts into tears. "Suddenly, I realized that I would never get that moment ... It was devastating. I left the dinner table, went out and cried," she said.
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Her struggles, between depression and anorexia
Her relationship with her parents has not been without consequences. While she eventually understood that Bruce Willis' attitude toward her was a reflection of her illness, she explains that "[her] teenage brain tortured itself with miscalculations: I'm not beautiful enough for my mother, I'm not interesting enough for my father." Thoughts to which was added a devastating media coverage, from childhood. At the age of 11, Tallulah listened to comments about her for "two hours." She comes out complex, "with the silent certainty of her own ugliness". A few years later, already struggling with depression, she fell into anorexia, plunging into "a state of avoidance and denial" about her father's problems. "While I was locked in my body dysmorphia, posting it on Instagram, [he] was struggling quietly," she recalls, too obsessed - at that time - by the image she was sending back.
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Now, Tallulah focuses on the moment, "takes a ton of pictures" every time she goes to her father's house, and makes sure to record "every voice message from him on a hard drive." So that memories do not escape him. The almost thirty-year-old tries to "document" this filial relationship, in order to arm herself to face the "day when he will no longer be able to remember".
If Bruce Willis still recognizes the young woman, she remains lucid about the future. "I know that trials are coming, that this is the beginning of grief," she said, adding that aphasia "can evolve so quickly and unpredictably." His father's condition is therefore likely to worsen further. For now, she's doing her best to "savor the time" spent with him.