Bruce Willis is the ultimate girl dad — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
The longtime actor was married to Demi Moore when he became a dad for the first time in 1988. That year, the couple welcomed their eldest daughter Rumer Glenn Willis, 36, and it wasn’t long before Scout LaRue Willis, 33, and Tallulah Belle Willis, 30, joined the family too. Although Bruce and Moore called it quits in 1998, that wouldn’t be the end of Bruce’s parenting journey.
In 2009, he tied the knot with model Emma Heming and the couple welcomed two more girls – Mabel Ray Willis, 12, and Evelyn Penn Willis, 10. Although being a dad to five daughters means the Die Hard star has never gotten the chance to raise a little boy, he enjoys being a girl dad and would gladly welcome more girls to his family!
“Bruce’s response when asked if he’d like to have a son?… ‘I’d have 5 more girls right now,’ ” Heming shared on Instagram in June 2021.
In March 2022, Bruce’s family announced that he would be retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia.
“We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him. As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up’ and together we plan to do just that,” his family said in a message shared on their respective Instagram accounts. The note was signed by all five of the actor’s daughters, as well as Heming and Moore.
The family gave an update on Bruce’s health on Feb. 16, 2023, sharing that his condition had progressed into frontotemporal dementia. In a statement on Instagram, Moore, Heming and his three older daughters wrote, “While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”
The next day, a source told PEOPLE that the actor’s family “is all closer than ever” amid news of his FTD diagnosis. The insider added that Heming “is trying to make as many positive memories” for their daughters Mabel and Evelyn.
“She wants them to remember Bruce as an amazing, fun dad. She wants them to have the best memories of him,” they added.
Keep reading for everything there is to know about Bruce WIllis’ daughters.
Rumer Glenn Willis, 36
Bruce and Moore welcomed their eldest daughter, Rumer Glenn Willis, on Aug. 16, 1988, in Paducah, Ky., while Bruce was working on his film In Country. The couple chose to raise Rumer outside of Hollywood, with the little girl spending much of her childhood in Hailey, Idaho, where the family purchased a $2.5 million mansion.
Although Rumer was raised in a small town, she still got a taste of life in the spotlight at a young age. When she was just five, she made her onscreen debut in her mom’s coming-of-age film Now and Then — but was credited under the name Willa Glen. A few years later, she appeared on the big screen again in Striptease, where she portrayed Moore’s onscreen daughter.
Growing up, Rumer continued to periodically appear in films, including Bruce’s The Whole Nine Yards and Hostage. As a high schooler, she moved to Los Angeles, where she attended Wildwood Secondary School. She befriended other famous celebrity offspring like Riley Keough and Dakota Johnson but says after moving to the West Coast, she began to experience intense scrutiny about her appearance that she hadn’t previously faced while living in a small town.
“They said I had a huge jaw. They said I had a ′potato head.’ When you’re 14 or 15, I didn’t really understand having value in myself yet. My mind went to, ‘Okay, so if I get skinny or if I dress the right way or present myself very hyper-sexually and dress this way, then I’ll be valued,’ ” Rumer shared. “So much for me became wrapped up in that my value set is based on what other people think of me, and had nothing to do with what I thought about myself.”
Rumer sought to take some time away from the spotlight when she enrolled at the University of Southern California in 2006. She only attended USC for one semester before dropping out after deciding to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. She then appeared in films like The House Bunny, From Within and Sorority Row. She even took home the award for Breakthrough Performance at the Young Hollywood Awards for her appearance in the high school comedy Wild Cherry.
During an “unmedicated” home birth, Rumer welcomed her daughter, Louetta Isley Thomas Willis, into the world in April 2023. She shares Louetta with her ex-boyfriend Derek Richard Thomas.
“I am single momming it and co-parenting,” Rumer told fans on Instagram in August 2024, confirming the couple’s breakup.
Scout LaRue Willis, 33
The former couple’s second daughter, Scout LaRue Willis, was born on July 20, 1991, in Sun Valley, Idaho, close to where the family had settled down with Rumer. Like her sister, Scout spent her younger years out of the spotlight, although she did appear in Moore’s 1995 film The Scarlet Letter and Bruce’s 1999 film Breakfast of Champions.
As a teenager, Scout moved to L.A. with her family and later enrolled at Brown University. After graduating in 2013, Scout turned her attention to more artistic endeavors. She took part in a London exhibition that featured her self-portraits and later shared topless photos of herself as a commentary on body politics and Instagram’s censorship of women. As part of her effort to start a discussion, she walked around New York City topless — pointing out that it was legal to do so while Instagram’s rules censored nudity.
As of late, Scout has been focusing her attention on music — which conveys similar themes to her art. While she did release an EP in 2012 as part of the duo Gus + Scout, she didn’t decide to wholeheartedly pursue music for another decade. After teaching herself to play guitar in 2016, she released her debut single, “Love Without Possession,” in 2021. The following year, she released “Woman at Best,” which she called an “ode to feminine creativity, sexuality and freedom.” In June 2022, she released her self-titled full-length album.
While Scout’s Instagram is mainly full of photos of her artwork and promotions for her music career, she did share a rare family photo in July 2021 in honor of her 30th birthday. “30 years ago today the V* rare 2 of 3 DemiXBruce collab dropped,” she captioned a snap of her smiling with Bruce and Moore.
Tallulah Belle Willis, 30
Bruce and Moore welcomed their youngest child, Tallulah Belle Willis, on Feb. 3, 1994, in L.A. Like her older sisters, she spent her early years on the family’s ranch in Idaho. Thanks to her small-town upbringing, Tallulah was completely unaware of the full extent of her family’s fame until they moved to California when she was in the third grade, as she told Teen Vogue.
Tallulah struggled with living life in the spotlight as a teenager, telling Teen Vogue that by the time she turned 13, she had become her own worst critic. Reading comments about her appearance online only heightened her insecurities, and it eventually triggered an eating disorder.
By the time she was in college, “the depression became overwhelming” and she was regularly using drugs, as she explained to the outlet. Her sisters encouraged her to get help, and not long after, Tallulah voluntarily entered a treatment center. Looking back on that time, Tallulah shared that becoming sober was “the most important thing” she’d ever done and she was forever grateful to the “powerful human beings” who “hoisted” her from her hole.
Following her stay in rehab, Tallulah repaired her strained relationship with her family. In 2019, she joined Moore and Rumer on an episode of Red Table Talk and admitted she was still getting to know her “intimidating” mother. Tallulah explained that Moore had always held back and refrained from sharing her past, making her “feel very far away from her.” But after reading Moore’s memoir, she got to know her mom on a different level and realized they were more alike than she thought.
Tallulah is now focused on forging a career in the fashion industry, and she launched her own clothing brand, Wyllis, during the pandemic. The line, which includes pieces that feature Tallulah’s art, works to promote mental health awareness and self-empowerment. Tallulah told PEOPLE that she hopes Wyllis will become “synonymous with safety, with awareness, with sensitivity, with kindness.”
“Basically my dream is to have wild success with my clothing line, heal the world with mental health and then move somewhere on a ranch and get 15 dogs of all shapes and sizes. And just be a Willy Wonka sort of like hounds,” Tallulah shared.
Tallulah was diagnosed with autism in 2023. She announced the news on Instagram and told her followers that the medical conclusion “changed” her life.
Following Bruce’s frontotemporal dementia diagnosis, Tallulah opened up about her father’s declining health in a first-person piece for Vogue, published in May 2023. “I’ve known that something was wrong for a long time,” she wrote. “It started out with a kind of vague unresponsiveness.”
Tallulah also admitted that she reacted to her father’s health decline with “avoidance and denial” amid her own struggles with an eating disorder and borderline personality disorder.
“I was at a wedding in the summer of 2021 on Martha’s Vineyard, and the bride’s father made a moving speech. Suddenly I realized that I would never get that moment, my dad speaking about me in adulthood at my wedding,” she wrote, describing the very instance that Bruce’s diagnosis became “painfully” real. “It was devastating. I left the dinner table, stepped outside, and wept in the bushes.”
Tallulah, who got engaged to musician Justin Acee in December 2024, is now looking forward to walking down the aisle with her dad.
Mabel Ray Willis, 12
On April 1, 2012, Bruce and Heming welcomed their first child together — a baby girl named Mabel Ray Willis.
Although Mabel was born in L.A., the family spent her first few years living at their home in Bedford Hills, New York — about an hour outside of New York City. Heming explained that she wanted a peaceful life for their family, away from the paparazzi and the culture of Hollywood.
“We wanted our kids to be able to have more room and a yard to run in. I also wanted to keep the kids as sheltered as we could from the paparazzi, and that scene is still very prevalent in L.A.; it’s not bad in New York, and it’s zero up where we live. The beauty of where we live is that it’s close to the city, so we get the best of both worlds,” Heming told Elle Décor.
It appears Mabel has gotten the best of both worlds, as evidenced by Heming’s Instagram. While some days are spent playing in the backyard and performing in piano recitals, others involve trips to N.Y.C. for bowling nights and attending Broadway shows.
These days, Mabel says that one day she hopes to become a “shark” on Shark Tank. When she’s not in school, she loves spending time with her parents and older sisters — and even gives her dad a dance lesson every once in a while!
Evelyn Penn Willis, 10
The couple grew their family once more with the birth of their younger daughter, Evelyn Penn Willis, born on May 5, 2014. Shortly after her birth, a rep for the couple said both Heming and Evelyn were “healthy and doing beautifully” and that Mabel was “delighted to have a new baby sister.”
“[We] didn’t know what we were gonna have until the baby came out. In general, I think women should be in charge of everything. Women are just much smarter than men,” Bruce told PEOPLE a week after Mabel’s arrival.
With the addition of another baby to the family, Heming shared that their home was “filled with joy and the laughter and chatter of little girls being themselves” in a place they “created with them in mind.”
As she’s gotten older, Heming has shared lots of photos of the little girl, showing off her love of Star Wars, her foray into sewing and her appreciation for roller coasters. During the pandemic, she also learned how to ride a bike while quarantining with her entire family, including Moore and her half-sisters, who cheered her on when she ditched her training wheels.
After Bruce was diagnosed with dementia, Evelyn did her part to care for her father. In a May 2023 Instagram post, Heming shared that their youngest researched “fun facts about dementia” and learned that those with the disease “can become severely dehydrated.”
Heming continued, “So I said to her, ‘Evelyn, we will always make sure daddy has a bottle of water in hand. Thank you for letting me know. But that is the most loving and compassionate thing that you can do is to be curious and educate yourself on your dad’s disease.’ ”
Source: People
