Rumer Willis paid tribute to her father Bruce Willis as she shared photos of him sweetly cradling her eight-week-old daughter Louetta for the first time.
The actress posted several snaps to Instagram as she marked Father’s Day by praising her own dad, who has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, and her partner Derek Thomas.
The 34-year-old first shared a sweet pic of her 68-year-old father holding the newborn in his arms and branded him the “best girl dad in the game”.
In the snaps, the action star was dressed casually in a black, white and grey plaid button-up shirt with a black baseball cap and dark pants while the little one looked adorable in a blue-and-orange floral-print onesie.
Rumer also shared a photo of her posing alongside her dad and her daughter in a blue polka-dotted skirt, a white top and yellow cardigan.
Captioning the post, she wrote: “Fathers to the old and new.
“Seeing my father hold my daughter today was something I will treasure for the rest of my life. His sweetness and love for her was so pure and beautiful.
“Papa I’m so lucky to have you and so is Lou. Thank you for being the silliest, most loving, coolest Daddio a girl could ask for. Best Girl Dad in the game…”
Willis went on to praise her other half, with whom she shares her first child, as she posted several photos of him with their daughter Louetta.
She continued: “Happy 1st Father’s Day.
“Thank you for building a beautiful garden for Lou to play in and eat from. Thank you for filling the house with music for her to hear. Thank you for all the late-night diaper changes and silly faces.
“I’m so grateful our girl has a papa that loves her so much and someone so goofy and weird so she knows that’s ok for her to be too. Thank you for the greatest girl I could imagine in my wildest dreams.”
The loving tribute comes after his daughter Tallulah said she suspected something was wrong with her dad “for a long time” before he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
The actor, 68, was diagnosed with aphasia last year — which the NHS describes as difficulty with language or speech, usually caused by a stroke.
But the star of Die Hard and 12 Monkeys was later given a more specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD) in March 2023. He has now stepped back from acting.
Tallulah, the daughter from her father’s marriage to Demi Moore, told Vogue about Willis’s condition earlier this month.
She said: “I’ve known that something was wrong for a long time. It started out with a kind of vague unresponsiveness. Later that unresponsiveness broadened, and I sometimes took it personally.”
It is possible for one to suffer hearing loss before dementia is diagnosed, however Alzheimer’s Society states that deafness can “make diagnosing [it] more difficult”.
Tallulah, who is also an actress, added: “I admit that I have met Bruce’s decline in recent years with a share of avoidance and denial that I’m not proud of.”
She said that she thought her dad had lost interest in her and sisters Rumer and Scout LaRue after he divorced Moore and married Emma Heming Willis, with whom he had two more daughters, Mabel and Evelyn.
Tallulah added: “I can bring him an energy that’s bright and sunny, no matter where I’ve been. In the past I was so afraid of being destroyed by sadness, but finally I feel that I can show up and be relied upon.
“I can savour that time, hold my dad’s hand, and feel that it’s wonderful. I know that trials are looming, that this is the beginning of grief, but that whole thing about loving yourself before you can love somebody else —it’s real.”
