The misfortunes of Bruce Willis: the death of his brother, his daughter’s diagnosis and his fight against dementia

Bruce Willis He doesn’t make money from disappointment. In recent days his daughter Tallulah had revealed that she suffers from autism and years ago he was diagnosed with an illness that forced him to abandon his career.

In March 2022, the Die Hard star’s family announced that Bruce would retire from acting following his diagnosis. aphasia. However, in early 2023 the doctors’ conclusion was more specific: Willis actually frontotemporal dementia.

Since then, Bruce has been countering the bitter pills with the love of his family. His ex-wife, actress Demi Moore, his five children and his current wife, Emma Hemingsthey take care of him minute by minute and accompany him in all the celebrations.

Stuttering and dementia

A not-so-known fact about the actor’s life is that he stuttered as a teenager and that this speech disorder caused him a lot of problems at school. His friends teased him by calling him “Buck-Buck”.

In one of his biographies, Willis says that ““I could hardly speak”. “It took me three minutes to complete a single sentence. It was overwhelming for someone who wanted to express himself to others and wanted to be heard but just couldn’t. It was terrifying,” says the actor, who managed to resolve his disorder in the lessons of theatre.

As an adult, speech disorders plagued him again. When his family reported that he suffered from aphasia, it was said that he would give up acting because of his speech difficulties. Months later, as we have already mentioned, it became known that he suffered from dementia.

Consulted by Clarin, Ricardo Allegrisenior researcher at Conicet and head of the department of cognitive neurology at Fleni, stated that the frontal dementia from which Willis suffers “is a neurodegenerative disease clinically characterized by the presentation of disorders, mainly behavioral (apathy and disinhibition)”.

“Unlike Alzheimer’s, which begins with cognitive (memory) problems, frontotemporal disease begins with behavioral problems. It occurs in younger patients than Alzheimer’s and often has a hereditary burden,” added the specialist.

His daughter’s illness

A few days before Bruce’s birthday, Tallulah Willisone of the actor’s daughters, said publicly for the first time that she has been diagnosed with autism.

The 30-year-old actress, the youngest of the actor’s three daughters from his marriage to Moore, uploaded a video of herself as a child playing with her father and jokingly wrote: “Tell me you’re autistic without telling me you’re autistic”.

In the comments on the post, a psychologist asked her whether she had been diagnosed with autism as a child or as an adult, having noticed that undiagnosed ASD occurred “quite frequently” in girls and women. And she didn’t hesitate to answer him.

“In fact, this is the first time I have shared my diagnosis publicly. I discovered it this summer and it changed my life.“Willis’ daughter replied.

Tallulah became famous for starring in the FOX reality show Stars on Marswhere he reveals, among other things, that he has suffered from several health problems throughout his life, such as anorexia nervosa, depression, addiction and ADHD.

In a post dedicated to her ex-husband on his birthday, Tallulah’s mother, Moore, shared a photo of Bruce and his daughters (the other two are Rumer and Scout).

The death of his younger brother

Bruce had three brothers: Florence, David and Robert. The latter, the youngest, died in 2001 of pancreatic cancer at just 42 years old.

That year, Bruce abandoned the filming of Hart’s Wara film he was shooting, to accompany his family in such a complicated moment.

“We loved Robert very much, he wasn’t just a brother, he was a wonderful son of our parents and we will miss him very much. “It’s a difficult time in our lives, due to the profound loss of our family,” he said at the time.