LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Amid Bruce Willis' dementia battle, his daughter, Tallulah, opened up about her own struggles with ADHD, borderline personality disorder and anorexia, which caused her to drop down to just 84lbs. The 29-year-old aspiring actress, whom Willis shares with his ex-wife, Demi Moore, recently penned a candid letter, where she also revealed that her fiance, Dillon Buss, broke off their engagement in June 2022.
"My boyfriend, who was by then my fiancé, dumped me," Tallulah wrote in an open letter for Vogue, adding that the situation forced her family to intervene and send her to a facility, where she was diagnosed with BPD. "I was given a new diagnosis: Borderline Personality Disorder, an illness that impairs the ability to regulate emotions and find stability in relationships," she explained. The ‘Bandits’ star announced her engagement to Buss in May 2021, nearly a year after they started dating.
'I was afraid of not having a place to sit down'
Tallulah said that after the engagement ended, she restricted food because it was "the last vice I got to hold on to." She also revealed that four years ago, she was diagnosed with anorexia, which caused her drastic weight-loss and left her unable to walk. "For the last four years, I have suffered from anorexia nervosa," she wrote, adding, "By the spring of 2022, I weighed about 84 pounds. I was always freezing. I was calling mobile IV teams to come to my house, and I couldn’t walk in my Los Angeles neighborhood because I was afraid of not having a place to sit down and catch my breath."
Tallulah continued by revealing that her body image issues began as a pre-teen. She said she was just 11 when she attended an event with her mother, Moore, and her then-partner Ashton Kutcher, only to encounter harsh public criticism about her looks. "I remember reading for two hours, believing that I had stumbled onto a truth about myself that no one had told me because they were trying to protect me. I told no one. I just lived with the silent certainty of my own ugliness,” she stated.
'This is ending now'
Tallulah entered a Malibu inpatient facility at the age of 25 to receive treatment for depression and ADHD. She recalled feeling an "unhealthy deliciousness" when people would make comments about her changing physique. In retrospect, she speculated about what would have occurred if her father had been "his full self" and understood what was going on with her. "If he had understood, [he] might have scooped me up and said, 'This is ending now,'" she wrote. She continued by saying that after her engagement ended, she was admitted to an inpatient facility in Texas and began to feel better.
"By the time I left Texas, in October, I felt a lot better," Tallulah said, adding that she knew that her rehabilitation will "probably be lifelong." However, she now felt capable of being "present" in all facets of her life, including her connection with her father. "Most of my clothes are too small now, and in the morning, as I go through my closet, I have to resist the temptation to linger on that and urge myself to move on. Recovery is probably lifelong, but I now have the tools to be present in all facets of my life, and especially in my relationship with my dad," she wrote.
