Bruce Willis held on tightly to his daughter Scout Willis’s hand as he spent Thanksgiving on Thursday with his entire family.
It was a poignant moment for fans of the actor, 68, after he retired from Hollywood with his family announcing in March last year he has been diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia.
It is an uncommon form of dementia which causes a deterioration in behaviour, personality and language.
Scout, 32, posted a video of herself and her dad holding hands to her Instagram Story and captioned it ‘my guy’.
In the video, Scout held out a hand towards Bruce and he looks down briefly before sliding his on top, evoking a huge smile from Scout.
Family time: Bruce Willis, 68, held on tightly onto the hand of his daughter Scout Willis, 32, as he spent Thanksgiving on Thursday with his entire blended family
Daddy’s girl: Scout then posted a photo of herself from the same day sweetly and gently resting her head on Bruce’s hand
Scout then posted a photo of herself from the same day sweetly and gently resting her head on Bruce’s hand.
She wore a white, short-sleeved floral top with puff sleeves while Bruce opted for a long-sleeved sports shirt and a grey hat.
Bruce has four other daughters: Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, nine, whom he had with Emma, plus Rumer, 35, and Tallulah, 29, with his first wife Demi Moore.
All of his children and both of his wives have rallied around Bruce as the movie star’s dementia diagnosis.
They were also all pictured with him in Emma’s flashback snap, along with Scout’s boyfriend Jake Miller and Rumer’s beau Derek Richard Thomas.
At the time the picture was taken, Rumer was apparently still pregnant with her and Derek’s daughter Louetta, whom she gave birth to in April.
‘I’m grateful and thankful to know this kind of love,’ wrote Emma in a caption awash with heart emojis. ‘Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving.’
Just three days earlier, Rumer touchingly posted a throwback of herself as a little girl in Bruce’s arms and wrote: ‘Really missing my papa today.’
Her post came about a month after a heartbreaking update from one of Bruce’s old friends about the state of his dementia decline.
Glenn Gordon Caron, who created Bruce’s star-making 1980s sitcom Moonlighting, shared his experiences of visiting the movie star amid his illness.
Happy: She wore a white, short-sleeved floral top with puff sleeves while Bruce opted for a long-sleeved sports shirt and a grey hat
Throwback: Bruce is pictured with his ex-wife Demi Moore, his wife Emma Heming and his daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn, plus Rumer and Scout’s boyfriends
Baby mine: At the time the picture was taken, Rumer was apparently still pregnant with her and Derek’s daughter Louetta, whom she gave birth to in April
Sweet: Rumer also shared a sweet snap of her little one on Thanksgiving with the caption ‘Thankful’
Nostalgia: Just three days earlier, Rumer touchingly posted a throwback of herself as a little girl in Bruce’s arms and wrote: ‘Really missing my papa today’
Health battle: Emma (2nd to R) has continued to share updates on his battle with dementia and aphasia, as well as the difficult of being a caregiver; seen in 2019 in LA
‘My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am,’ said Glenn in his devastating interview with Page Six. ‘He’s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader – he didn’t want anyone to know that – and he’s not reading now.’
Glenn, who also created the show Medium, revealed: ‘All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce.’
He added: ‘When you’re with him you know that he’s Bruce and you’re grateful that he’s there, but the joie de vivre is gone.’
Last year Bruce withdrew from showbiz amid his battle with the brain condition aphasia, which causes the patient’s language abilities to deteriorate.
Then this March his family announced that his illness had ‘progressed’ and he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Since Bruce’s battle with aphasia began, Glenn has apparently tried to pay monthly visits to him, not always successfully.
‘I’m not always quite that good,’ the television writer confessed: ‘but I try and I do talk to him and his wife and I have a casual relationship with his three older children. I have tried very hard to stay in his life.’
Glenn shared: ‘The thing that makes [his disease] so mind-blowing is if you’ve ever spent time with Bruce Willis, there is no one who had any more joie de vivre than he.’
Bruce ‘just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest,’ but now he lives as though ‘seeing life through a screen door.’