Bruce Willis' wife calls him 'greatest dad I know' in moving Father's Day post

Bruce Willis. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Bruce Willis. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Published Jun 19, 2023

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Bruce Willis' wife called him "the greatest dad I know" in a moving Father's Day message.

The actor - who is suffering from a progressive neurological disorder called frontotemporal dementia - has two children daughters with Emma, 45, as well as three grown-up daughters from his marriage to Demi Moore and the former model has heaped praise in his parenting skills in an emotional post on Instagram.

She wrote: "Father’s Day is a time I get to reflect on my deep appreciation and respect I have for Bruce as I watch him father our little ones.

“Where it might not be 'conventional', what he’s teaching them will span generations. Unconditional love, kindness, strength, compassion, patience, generosity, resilience.

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“Happy Father’s Day to the greatest dad I know, who will forever be the gift that keeps giving within our family."

The “Die Hard” actor is dad to 11-year-old Mabel and nine-year-old Evelyn with Emma plus Rumer, 34, Scout, 31, and Tallulah, 29, with Moore.

Scout was among those who replied to Emma's post in the comments section, writing: "This is so so true and so beautiful".

Moore - who divorced Bruce in 200 but remains close with him - also shared the love for her ex on Father's Day, writing in her own post on Instagram: "Forever grateful to you BW for giving me these three beautiful girls. We love our #girldad. Happy Father’s Day!"

Bruce's family went public with his health crisis in February when they revealed he was suffering from the condition that affects cognition and behaviour.

Tallulah later expanded on the devastating diagnosis in an essay written for Vogue magazine, in which she highlighted the early signs of the disorder that they didn't recognise.

She wrote: "My family announced in early 2022 that Bruce Willis was suffering from aphasia, a brain-mediated inability to speak or to understand speech, and we learned earlier this year that that symptom was a feature of frontotemporal dementia, a progressive neurological disorder that chips away at his cognition and behaviour day by day."

She went on to add: "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.”

Things got so bad that Tallulah broke down at a wedding in 2021 after realising that her dad would never be able to give a speech at her wedding.

She continued: “Suddenly I realised that I would never get that moment, my dad speaking about me in adulthood at my wedding. It was devastating.

“I left the dinner table, stepped outside, and wept in the bushes.”