The Saddest Things About Bruce Willis & Demi Moore's Daughter Rumer

Rumer Willis, actor, singer, and daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, has been very open about how blessed she feels to be in one of the most famous families on the planet. "[I'm] one of the luckiest girls around," she said during a 2008 "The House Bunny" press conference (via People). But her privileged upbringing doesn't mean she's breezed through life. In fact, this star has made it through some tragic times — some even as a direct result of her parents.

In 2019, alongside her mom, Willis spoke candidly on "Red Table Talk" about one of the most terrifying moments of her life when Moore had a relapse in her addiction. Willis shared she made the 911 call, but wrestled with if she should be in the room while her mom potentially took her last breath. "I took her to rehab on the plane, which was the scariest thing I ever had to do in my life," Willis said. She revealed Moore's substance abuse issues and doomed marriage to Ashton Kutcher caused their relationship to become strained, and there was a point she didn't even recognize her. "[She's] supposed to be my rock," Willis said. Thankfully, the mother-daughter duo worked through their issues, but that's only one of the sad things Willis has dealt with.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Rumer Willis and Demi Moore, who has a tragic real-life story of her own, spoke candidly on "Red Table Talk"about the self-esteem issues that started when Willis was young. "[It] did not reflect her environment, her insecurity, her self-loathing. Just the torture of not feeling good enough," Moore said, admitting she believed her daughter's low opinion of herself stemmed from her own insecurities. "My mom doesn't love herself, so how can I?" Willis added, sharing she felt unworthy of love and believed she had to earn it when she was younger.

Sadly, Willis' lack of confidence continued when she was relentlessly bullied as a teenager. In 2015, she spoke candidly on "Dancing With the Stars" about how she'd been treated, sharing that her looks were often compared to her mom's. "People would say I looked like a man or something called a 'buttaface,' which means everything good but her face, or potato head ... basically making fun of the way I looked," she recalled (via BBC News). Willis said she considered getting plastic surgery and losing weight to make the bullying stop. "That will be it, that will be the answer' and it's not," she told herself. Willis also spoke to HuffPost four years later about the cruel jibes. "They said I had a huge jaw ... When you're 14 or 15, I didn't really understand having value in myself yet," she said. "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.'" Fortunately, as part of Rumer Willis' stunning transformation, she learned to love herself and realized she didn't need to change for anyone.

Rumer Willis has been very open about her mental health, including the multiple diagnoses she received after feeling ill. Speaking to The Independent in 2014, Willis shared she was told she had bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Though the star wasn't convinced by every diagnosis, she knew she'd experienced PTSD. "[It] came from my childhood. When you have trauma, it leaves landmines in your psyche that embed themselves so deeply that you can't trace their origin, 'cos sometimes they start at three years old. And what I realised was that we control our lives so those emotions don't get set off," she said. "When your life gets taken over, you have no control over that any more ... I couldn't stop myself from getting hurt. And I couldn't prevent the explosions."

Willis also opened up about her experience with anxiety, which reached its peak at the height of her singing career. On "Red Table Talk," Willis shared she'd often turn to alcohol to deal with her anxious thoughts amid her strained relationship with her mom. "I literally started getting anxiety attacks about how bad I was going to feel the next day. So I would be drunk and start hyperventilating and freak out," she said. In January 2024, she told fans via Instagram she'd found vitamins that made her struggles more manageable. "I have always had high anxiety and stress," she wrote, the year after she confirmed she was six years sober.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

When it comes to love, Rumer Willis hasn't had the easiest time. The star was reportedly devastated after rumors swirled that her relationship with her "Dancing With the Stars" pro Val Chmerkovskiy had turned romantic but ended in a split. A source told Fox News in 2018 that Willis was so besotted with Chmerkovskiy she got a tattoo to commemorate their partnership on the ABC series. But after Chmerkovskiy found love with fellow pro Jenna Johnson, the insider claimed Willis was so upset she had the ink erased. "Rumer was so infatuated with Val when they won ... Now she feels like a fool, so she's now undergoing this painful tattoo removal," they claimed. Willis spoke to the Daily Mail about removing multiple tattoos, explaining, "It just didn't feel like me anymore, so I just thought to change it up."

Willis didn't fare much better with the father of her daughter, Derek Richard Thomas. In August 2024, she confirmed they'd broken up on Instagram Stories around a year after welcoming their first child, Louetta. "I am single momming it and co-parenting," she wrote after a fan asked if they were still together (via People). "I'm so grateful for Lou. She is the best thing in my life and I am forever grateful I was able to have the time in that relationship for her to come into my life." Speaking to Yahoo! Life three months later, she touched on the difficulties of life as a single mom. "Co-parenting is different," she admitted, noting, "You don't realize how helpful it is to have another pair of hands until you don't have them."

Rumer Willis has been open about how difficult she's found her dad Bruce Willis' devastating health news after the family confirmed he'd been diagnosed with dementia. In February 2023, Willis shared a photo of her dad on Instagram in happier times on the beach. "Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis," she wrote, sharing his condition had been narrowed down as frontotemporal dementia and things had progressed since his ailing health was made public in March 2022.

Willis has shared several adorable throwback photos with her dad since then, giving fans an insight into their close relationship. In June 2022, she posted three snaps of herself and the actor when she was a child. "Daddio[.] What a privilege it is every day to be your daughter. I love you so much. You are the coolest cat in town," she wrote. Then, in November 2023, she uploaded another sweet photo of the "Diehard" actor holding her as a child. "Really missing my papa today," she wrote, alongside a crying emoji.

Rumer Willis has gotten very candid with fans about her innermost thoughts and feelings for years, and that didn't stop when she became a mom. In December 2024, she shared an Instagram selfie of herself and her daughter and explained her social media absence. "I have been going through a really intense chapter of what feels like old and new grief, growth and transformation," she wrote. Willis explained she and Lou had both been ill and she was finding it hard to deal with an amalgamation of personal issues. Though she didn't go into explicit detail, she said she'd experienced, "Sickness, betrayal, burn out, disappointment, broken trust, balancing work and motherhood, the mental load that comes with it all." The single mom also wrote about how difficult she'd found seeing her daughter unwell. "[It's] one of the hardest things I've had to endure as a mother I'm so grateful for her trust in me and grateful to the other amazing woman that help support me in taking care of both of us," she shared.

But Willis appeared determined to make it through her difficult end to the year. She wrote that she planned to go into 2025 by making things better for herself and her daughter. "I'm hoping that my mind will absolutely be blown for what is on the other side," she said.