Last week Tallulah Willis, Bruce’s youngest daughter with ex-wife Demi Moore, posted a carousel of throwback pictures on her Instagram that featured her father. The caption read “damn, these photos are hitting tonight. Youre my whole damn heart and Im so proud to be your Tallulah Belle Bruce Willis.” Endearing, right? When I scroll through the photos I see a loving father and daughter. Well, someone who doesn’t know Bruce or his family personally, took to the interwebs and called the post “terrible.” The woman further went on to accuse Tallulah and the rest of Bruce’s family of abasing his image by sharing photos of him and updates on his condition. Tallulah read her for filth:
On Saturday, Nov. 18, the 29-year-old daughter of Bruce and Demi Moore took to social media to shut down hateful comments criticizing her family for sharing photos and talking publicly about the Die Hard actor’s battle with frontotemporal dementia.
The post featured a screenshot of a photo featuring Tallulah and her dad that she previously shared online. The woman making the video shared her opinion on the pic, calling it “terrible” that Tallulah and her family would share details and photos about their dad’s private health condition.
“Can you do me a favor,” the woman started her spiel. “If I ever get dementia, please don’t take pictures of me and post it on the internet telling everyone how I’m getting worse and I’m toothless and they don’t even know how to talk anymore. Especially if I’m a famous celebrity.”
“Please don’t do this to me,” she reiterated. “This is terrible!”
It’s not clear what statements the woman was referring to, but Tallulah’s family previously shared videos from Bruce’s birthday celebration last year, and many people noticed he was missing some teeth.
Tallulah, who understandably took offense to the critical video, reposted it to Instagram on Saturday, writing in her post, “Is she f–king kidding….”
“we love when people try to utilize my dads disease for some relevancy, so cute keep doing u bb, trust me it’s such a good look,” she sarcastically added.
In her caption, Tallulah further expressed her feelings, writing, “I hate that im giving this person more reach, but with the pain and everything else my family and I are all already facing, this just feels f—king foul and unacceptable.”
“I’m honestly a bit speechless right now,” she added.
Thankfully, Tallulah’s followers were quick to offer her and the rest of her family some support, including one comment that read, “Your feelings are valid. Sending much love ❤️.”
Ever since Bruce’s family announced his aphasia diagnosis in March 2022, the messages have been co-signed by all of his leading ladies: Emma, Demi, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, & Evelyn. His wife, his ex-wife, his three older daughters with Demi Moore, his two younger daughters with Emma Heming. These are the women closest to Bruce. When they updated fans a year later that his diagnosis had progressed to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), they made a point of saying “Bruce always believed in using his voice in the world to help others, and to raise awareness about important issues both publicly and privately.” If this snarky poster had actually been paying attention, she would have noticed that his family has actually not revealed intimate details of how Bruce is doing. Some “friends” may have overstepped in their public commentary, but the family has taken care to be a bit vague in their language on his condition specifically. Instead, Bruce’s family, and in particular his wife Emma, consistently redirect the conversation to awareness about FTD and resources for patients and their families. And again, the updates come from the women closest to Bruce. I trust them to know what he would’ve wanted, to be his fiercest champions and protectors and to have his best interests at heart.
Tallulah, your photos were charming and so clearly rooted in love. And I say that as someone of a similar(ish) age who recently lost her own father. Your love is real, the rest is just noise (and yeah, sometimes f–king foul).
Photos via Instagram and credit: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
That woman can eff off. I think the Willis family have been doing a good job bringing awareness to the illness.
People have lost the ability to self-edit and the understanding that not everything applies to them. I think it’s particularly funny that she responded to Tallulah’s post with asking that “you” me a favor (as in Tallulah)–Why would Tallulah ever post pics of a random stranger? Ok lady, tell your family that
I don’t know, I can see both sides here. On the one hand Willis’ family are showbusiness people going through the hardest time in their lives in the way they are most comfortable – publicly. On the other hand, people in cognitive decline are horrifically vulnerable, I have one in my own life and I always pause before sending a photo of him to one of his friends, thinking “if they send this pic on to others is this how he would want to be seen by the wider world?” And I keep all of it off social media. . So I understand where the woman who made the critical video was coming from, for a lot of us sharing too much about a loved one’s decline feels like a betrayal of their human dignity. But again, the Willis family aren’t private people, so I get why they are sharing so much. I don’t think there’s a clear right or wrong here. It’s like the way Willis’ family had him working hard right up the last possible time he could stand in front of a camera and say lines. One the one hand it smacks of elder abuse, on the other he had a second family of young children and maybe this is how he would have wanted to go, earning money for them.
I definitely read that early on, the routine of being on a set and doing what he had always done was helpful for him. I never considered whether he shouldn’t have been doing it, I just assumed his treatment providers were in support. I can’t believe they NEEDED that money, but maybe
When my mum was first diagnosed with dementia she was for the most part leading a normal life where she would sometimes get confused and forgetful – there was then a sudden downturn where her cognitive abilities deteriorated quite quickly. This is quite common and seems that’s what happened with Bruce. It went from being manageable to not.
Even up until she died we would sometimes share photo’s of her on social media among family – the thing that would upset me was when certain people (one of her sisters) would whine on SM about her condition to get attention. This is not what is happening here with the Willis family – props to them and Bruce.
This country has such a hard time with illness and aging. Aging and illness are part of life, and too many people try to hide away relatives who are ill. As a caregiver of a parent with Parkinson’s and dementia I applaud when people share how people are doing and like to see pictures. I take my parent everywhere, to all family gatherings, out in public, take plenty of pictures. She’s still here, she still matters, she is a person like any other and still likes pictures. It’s life, and aging and illness is nothing to be ashamed of. What I find shameful and awful is the people who think Bruce has to be secreted away, that the family has to pretend that he isn’t ill, that they can no longer take pictures because some idiot who doesn’t know him thinks that Bruce would be opposed to it. Caregiving is brutal and I give every benefit of the doubt to the caregivers to do what is right for their family.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. My mother had Parkinson’s and she was still here with us until the very end. Wanted to see people, loved to talk to everyone, and depriving her of contact with others would have been cruel. It’s a hard line to walk, protecting the medical and physical privacy of a loved one in your care.
This! This! This!
These people are grieving the slow loss of one of the most important people in their lives, let them talk about him if that’s what they want to do!
“Please don’t do that to me if I am ever in that situation” is something you say to family and friends, not to the post of a stranger dealing with the grief of experiencing this.
Also, people without disabilities have very different idea of what quality of life they are willing to endure, versus after they have a disabling event. It’s an evolving area of medical ethics. What do you do when someone created a living will saying they wanted X to happen if they ever reached Y stage, but now they are at Y stage and very happy in their day to day life, with no memories of the self who signed the living will?
We need more pictures and accounts of people living with dementia, cared for by loved ones. It needs to become imaginable.
All those girls are Daddy’s girls. I always felt Tallulah was the biggest one. Her beautiful Daddy is declining right before her eyes and she is having trouble accepting it. If insensitive witches can’t accept that they can F off.
She did nothing abnormal or exploitative at all. You know other girls on the same day posted photos of their Fathers who are dying. They are just trying to memorialize their own Fathers and trying to make sense of what is happening, Tallulah is public she is ridiculed.
I wish everyone would stop accusing these women of exploiting Bruce. He has a strong core value of being a provider. He was making all those films because he was worried he could not provide anymore. He was losing his own self worth. I am sure Emma and everyone was trying to make him slow down but he was fighting.
I also feel like the Covid lockdown contributed to his decline. He wasn’t working and in his mind felt like he wasn’t protecting his family.
I have a provider too. My husband got his cane today. I want him to slow down. I know if he did he would be in a bad place.
I met Bruce once. He was sweet, flirty and made me feel beautiful. It was in such a sweet and safe way. It was not a come on. He was just a complete sweetheart and rare gem. My heart is broken for this family.