Tallulah Willis is opening up about her autism diagnosis for the very first time.
The 30-year-old fashion designer posted a sweet throwback video on Instagram over the weekend that showed her 10-year-old self playing with the ears and iconic bald head of her father, Bruce Willis, at the 2004 premiere of The Whole Ten Yards.
“tell me your [sic] autistic without telling me your autistic,” she captioned the post with.
The post was flooded with comments from supportive followers, one of whom lauded Tallulah Willis as “brave” for speaking up.
“Not sure how much of your journey you’ve shared but would love to read more,” the user said, to which Tallulah Willis replied: “actually this is the first time I’ve ever publicly shared my diagnosis. Found out this summer and it’s changed my life.”
Autism, which is formally known as autism spectrum disorder, is a developmental disability that can impede social communication and interaction and spawn repetitive behaviours or interests, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tallulah Willis has been open about her struggles before and previously admitted having had an eating disorder, living with borderline personality disorder and having ADHD.
In an essay she wrote for Vogue last year, she shared that navigating her own issues made it much harder to handle her father’s condition.
“I admit that I have met Bruce’s decline in recent years with a share of avoidance and denial that I’m not proud of,” Tallulah Willis wrote. “The truth is that I was too sick myself to handle it.”
The Die Hard actor was diagnosed with aphasia in 2022, which affects memory and communication, and retired from acting before it progressed to frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. FTD can cause unusual behaviour and communication and emotional issues.
The average life expectancy after FTD symptoms begin is seven to 13 years.
Bruce Willis became a grandfather last year after his and Demi Moore’s oldest daughter, Rumer Willis, gave birth to a baby girl in April.
In her essay, Tallulah Willis wrote about seeing her father become a grandparent.
“In April, my older sister Rumer had a baby girl, Louetta, and Bruce and Demi became grandparents,” she said. “There’s this little creature changing by the hour, and there’s this thing happening with my dad that can shift so quickly and unpredictably.
“It feels like a unique and special time in my family, and I’m just so glad to be here for it.”