Seventy-one-year-old Bruce Willis<\/a>, as is well known, has been living with frontotemporal dementia since 2023<\/a>, a degenerative neurological disease that has no cure<\/a>. This has led his 38-year-old daughter, Rumer Willis, to undergo genetic testing to assess her own risk of developing dementia and other hereditary cognitive disorders, she recently announced.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s terrifying to get answers sometimes,\u201d she said in an interview with People<\/em><\/a>. \u201cObviously there are genetic things in my family. Not just dementia, I\u2019ve had some family members who have had breast cancer and family members who have had different things.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been hard to find silver linings, or what Emma calls \u201ccracks of light\u201d\u2014like the fact that she and Bruce never argue anymore. But they have built something new, and as a caregiver, she has found her voice helping others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBut I think when you have information, it\u2019s power,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd that sounds so, like, Spider-Man<\/a>, but when we\u2019re able to see, OK, maybe I\u2019m more predisposed to this, you can just start actively working to reduce inflammation in your body, work on heart health, whatever it is.”<\/p>\n Willis did not disclose the results of the tests, nor did she say if she was aware of any genetic conditions that would impact her life or the life of Louetta Isley Thomas Willis, Rumer’s three-year-old daughter<\/a> with former partner Derek Richard Thomas. But, regardless of inherited conditions, the eldest daughter of Willis and then-wife Demi Moore<\/a> says she’s taking steps to ensure she has a long, healthy life.<\/p>\n Bruce Willis and Rumer Willis at the Los Angeles premiere of Surrogates<\/em> on September 24, 2009.<\/p>\n <\/span>Jeffrey Mayer<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cI think health is one of those things that we take for granted until we don\u2019t have it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think that if you are taking small steps right now to be proactive about it, you might not have to have such a steep fall off the cliff as you get older.\u201d<\/p>\n Rumer Willis isn’t the first celebrity to come out publicly regarding genetic testing for cognitive decline. In 2022, Thor<\/em><\/a> star Chris Hemsworth<\/a> used his National Geographic docuseries Limitless<\/em><\/a> to unpack test results that suggested he has a predisposition toward Alzheimer’s Disease.<\/p>\n<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n
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