Bruce Willis‘ family is showing up for the star on Father’s Day.
Emma Heming Willis, the action icon’s wife since 2009, and Rumer Willis, one of three daughters he shares with ex Demi Moore, posted poignant tributes to Bruce on social media Sunday amid his ongoing battle with frontotemporal dementia.
“Happy Father’s Day to all the dads living with disability or disease, showing up in the ways they can and to the children who show up for them,” Emma began in her Instagram post, which featured a photo of Bruce with their daughter, Mabel Ray Willis. “What Bruce teaches our girls goes far beyond words. Resilience, unconditional love, and the quiet strength in simply being present.”
But Father’s Day isn’t all happiness and gratitude in the face of the challenges brought on by dementia, Emma explained.
“To be fair to myself, these symbolic days stir up a lot. I’m profoundly sad today. I wish, with every cell in my body, that things could be different for him and lighter for our family,” she wrote. “Today, let’s celebrate the badass dads, those who are here, and those we carry with us 💙 Onward.”
Bruce’s youngest daughter with Moore, Tallulah Willis, showed her support for stepmom Emma in a comment on her post which read, “Love you so much. Love him. Love our family.”
In an Instagram story posted the same day, Emma shared a photo of Bruce with their two daughters, Mabel Ray and Evelyn Penn, posed at a museum in front of a dinosaur skeleton.
“I miss and mourn what was. Even those UGG days 😉 I want it all back,” she wrote over the photo.
Rumer, Bruce and Moore’s eldest daughter, shared a post expressing a similarly complicated relationship with Father’s Day, one shot through with both joy and pain.
“Today is hard, I feel a deep ache in my chest to talk to you and tell you everything I’m doing and what’s going on in my life. To hug you and ask you about life and your stories and struggles and successes. I wish I asked you more questions while you could still tell me about it all,” she wrote, as if addressing her father.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Bruce and Moore were married in 1987, separated in 1998, and finalized their divorce in 2000. In that time they had Rumer Glenn, 36, Scout LaRue, 33, and Tallulah Belle, 31. Moore and all three of their daughters have shown Bruce unceasing support since his aphasia diagnosis in 2022, which progressed to a frontotemporal dementia diagnosis in 2023.
Rumer, who gives periodic updates on her father’s health to his legion of loyal fans, continued in her Father’s Day post, “I know you wouldn’t want me to be sad today so I’ll try to just be grateful reminding myself how lucky I am that you’re my dad and that you’re still with me and I can still hold you and hug you and kiss your cheek and rub your head I can tell you stories. I can watch the way your eyes light up when you see Louetta,” she wrote, in reference to the baby she welcomed with ex Derek Richard Thomas in 2023.
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“I love you so much dad happy Father’s Day,” she concluded.
Despite facing the challenges of divorce, addiction, and now brain disease, the extended Willis family carries on in lock step.
In April, Moore, fresh off her decorated awards-season run for The Substance, shared her pride at being able to maintain a strong family bond through the years.
“Regardless of what the outside relationship has been, we have maintained being a family in various forms,” she said. “The foundation of making our children our priority has never wavered.”