Update on Bruce Willis' Dementia

Tallulah Willis has opened up about father Bruce Willis’ dementia diagnosis, revealing he spends most of his days on the first floor of the home.

His dementia hasn't yet affected his mobility, but Tallulah said he frequents the “open plan of the kitchen-dining-living room, or in his office," the latter she claims “is filled with the knickknacks he has collected: vintage toy cars, coins, rocks, objects made of brass.”

“He likes things that feel heavy in the hand, that he can spin around in his fingers."

“There’s always music playing. My dad is an excellent musician in his own right, an accomplished harmonica player, and he loves his oldies, which span genres from Patsy Cline to Nina Simone.”

His diagnosis was made public in March last year. He has been diagnosed with aphasia, a brain disorder that affects his ability to communicate and causes problems on set.

In February this year they revealed a more specific diagnosis, frontotemporal dementia.

Tallulah has said he still recognises her but she does take lots pictures around the house, and saves all his voicemails “for the day when he isn’t there to remind me of him and of us."

“He still knows who I am and lights up when I enter the room. I keep flipping between the present and the past when I talk about Bruce: he is, he was, he is, he was. That’s because I have hopes for my father that I’m so reluctant to let go of.”

She has also explained how hurtful comments about her “ugly” appearance impacted her self-worth.

“‘Wow, she looks deformed. Look at her man jaw — she’s like an ugly version of her dad. Her mother must be so disappointed,'” she remembered commenters critiquing a photo of her teenage self while “standing beside my famously beautiful mom.”

She claims she knew something was “wrong” with Bruce for a “long time” before his initial aphasia diagnosis.

“It started out with a kind of vague unresponsiveness, which the family chalked up to Hollywood hearing loss: ‘Speak up! ‘Die Hard’ messed with Dad’s ears.'"

“Later that unresponsiveness broadened, and I sometimes took it personally. He had had two babies with my stepmother, Emma Heming Willis, and I thought he’d lost interest in me.”

“Though this couldn’t have been further from the truth, my adolescent brain tortured itself with some faulty math: I’m not beautiful enough for my mother, I’m not interesting enough for my father.”