Bruce Willis’ daughter Tallulah says autism diagnosis has ‘changed my life’
By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN
(CNN) — Tallulah Willis is sharing for the first time that she was diagnosed with autism.
Willis, 30, shared her health update over the weekend when she posted a throwback video on her Instagram page of herself with her father.
In the video, her father Bruce Willis is holding a young Tallulah in his arms while appearing at a red carpet event. While he’s answering questions from reporters, his daughter gently rubs his bald head and plays with his ear.
“Tell me your (sic) autistic without telling me your (sic) autistic,” she wrote in the caption.
In the comments, a user praised Tallulah for being “brave and inspiring” for sharing the video and asked her to share more about her diagnosis if she was comfortable doing so.
“Actually this is the first time I’ve ever publicly shared my diagnosis,” she wrote in response.
She went on to write that she was diagnosed this past summer and that “it’s changed my life.”
Autism refers to a broad range of conditions and is often “characterized by challenges with social skills and social and communication and repetitive behaviors, resistance to changes in routine, or restricted interests,” according to Dr. Daniel Geschwind, the Gordon and Virginia Macdonald distinguished professor of human genetics, neurology and psychiatry at UCLA.
“I prefer to call it ‘the Autisms,’ because it’s not one thing, and no two autistic children or adults are exactly alike even though they may share basic features,” Geschwind told CNN last year.
Tallulah Willis, known for starring in the FOX reality show “Stars on Mars,” has been open with her followers about her health in the past, sharing in a May 2023 essay written for Vogue that she had “suffered from anorexia nervosa,” depression, addiction and ADHD.
She has also celebrated parts of her healing and progress on her Instagram page, earning praise and support from her followers and family members in the comments.
Willis is the youngest daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. They are also parents to daughters Rumer and Scout Willis. Willis remarried and also has two daughters with his wife Emma Heming Willis.
The former couple have remained close as the “Die Hard” actor lives with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a diagnosis his family – including Moore – shared publicly in a February 2023 statement.
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