(CNN) – Bruce Willis’ daughter Tallulah Willis shared an update on her father’s health after the Die Hard actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) earlier this year.
“He has a really aggressive cognitive illness, a form of dementia that’s very rare,” Tallulah noted on Wednesday’s episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show.” And he added: “He’s the same, which I think is the best you can expect in that sense.”
Tallulah is the youngest daughter of Willis and actress Demi Moore, who were married from 1987 to 2000. They are also parents to Tallulah’s older sisters, Scout and Rumer Willis. In 2009, Willis married Emma Heming and they have two young daughters.
Bruce Willis’ family – including Heming, Moore and his five daughters – have regularly reported on the actor’s health after announcing his FTD diagnosis in a statement in February.
It’s “important” to talk openly about Willis’ progress, Tallulah said Wednesday, noting that her family’s goal is to “raise awareness of FTD.”
“If we can individually use something that we struggle with as a family to help other people turn it around and do something beautiful with it, then that’s really special to us,” she explained.
According to the Mayo Clinic, FTD is a “general term for a group of brain disorders that primarily affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. These areas of the brain are generally associated with personality, behavior and language.”
Last month, Glenn Gordon Caron, a friend of Bruce Willis and collaborator on “Moonlighting,” told the New York Post that the actor doesn’t speak, adding that “all of those language skills are no longer available to him and yet he does it.” .” Bruce.” “.
This week, Tallulah said that “a big part” of the way she spends time with her father is “playing music and just sitting in that energy of love.”
“I see love when I’m with him,” she later added. “And he’s my dad and he loves me, which is really special.”