Tallulah Willis is sharing a candid message for those recovering from an eating disorder.
“ED recovery babies — sending love to you all, I’m having an intens[e] moment of romanticizing unhealthy times and how it felt to move through the day in that size body,” Willis, 30, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, February 21. “Just wanted to voice it because I know (hope) I’m not alone.”
Willis also shared several snaps of herself as a child, including one of her wearing a life jacket as she smiled at the camera while holding a fishing net. She also posted a photo that showed her laughing on a sled.
“This little raggymuffin is so special and it’s strange to know that and want to give her abundance and vitality — LIFE! whilst at the EXACT same moment feeling pulled by an old desire, deep down from the pit spot in your belly, to compare to the ‘better’ version of me,” Willis wrote. “AND it’s OK to be in the middle of the messy and not totally have it all sorted yet.”
In response to the post, sister Rumer Willis commented, “You are magic, your truth is so vital and I’m so lucky to be your sister.” (Tallulah and Rumer, 35, are the daughters of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. The pair, who finalized their divorce in 2000 after tying the knot in 1987, are also parents to Scout Willis.)
Tallulah has previously been candid about her recovery from her eating disorder. In May 2023, she opened up in a personal essay for Vogue, writing, “For the last four years, I have suffered from anorexia nervosa.” She also discussed her struggle with body dysmorphia.
“By the spring of 2022, I weighed about 84 pounds,” she wrote. “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 also shared she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when she was 25 and began taking medication, but the treatment came with an “appetite-suppressant side effect.”
“There’s an unhealthy deliciousness at the beginning of losing weight rapidly,” she reflected. “People are like, ‘Oh, wow!’ And then quickly it turns to, ‘Are you OK?’ My friends and family were terrified, and I dismissed it.”
Tallulah explained that she met her dad’s “decline” with a “share of avoidance and denial” that she’s “not proud of,” saying, “The truth is that I was too sick myself to handle it.”
The Willis family announced in March 2020 that Bruce, 68, would be taking a step back from acting as he battled aphasia. They later shared that Bruce had received a “more specific diagnosis” of frontotemporal dementia.
Tallulah wrote in Vogue that after she and her fiancé called it quits, she was sent to a Texas rehabilitation center called Driftwood Recovery in June 2022, where she learned she had borderline personality disorder. She noted that when she left Texas, she “felt a lot better.”
“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 said. “I can bring him an energy that’s bright and sunny, no matter where I’ve been.”
If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Eating Disorders (NEDA) website or call their hotline at (800) 931-2237 to get help.
