Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have attracted a fair bit of attention the last few weeks because they have been sheltering together at Demi's home in California. It has honestly seemed kind of sweet: They've also been at home with their children and even a few of their kids' boyfriends.
However, eagle-eyed celebrity followers (and then quickly the rest of us) have wondered why Bruce's wife, Emma Heming, wasn't with the family. Bruce and Emma have two young daughters together, and the optics were odd: Why was Bruce with his ex-wife when he could be with Emma and their kids instead?
It turns out that the reason was pretty innocent: Emma and the kids were originally going to join the big, happy family, but they got stuck with a medical emergency. By the time they could have come out to the home, it was too late: Strict social distancing measures were already in place in California.
Bruce and Demi's daughter Scout acknowledged how the public feels about her parents. "It's just so funny because to me they're just like my super [expletive] weird parents but to everyone else, there's like this different level."
She also explained what happened with her stepfamily: "My stepmum was going to come up here too with my little sisters … but my younger sister … at a park, had never gotten the talk about not [expletive] with hypodermic needles that she found, so she actually tried to poke her shoe with it and poked her foot."
She also said, "Travel got crazy, so my stepmom stayed in LA with my little sisters."
OK, fair enough! The Moore-Willis family have been spending the weeks entertaining everyone with photos from their antics. Bruce even shaved daughter Tallulah's head! It's been all fun and games. But now, social distancing measures have been relaxed just a bit, and Bruce can reunite with Emma and the kids.
And he promptly did so … along with Demi. Emma recently shared that their daughter turned 6 … and included a video in which you can see Demi clear as day.
"A big day over here! Not only did the baby of family turn 6, she decided to take those training wheels off ♂️ #thisis6."
On one hand, this is all actually really cool. I personally love to see evidence that families can grow and change and somehow just get bigger and add on more love. I think the way Bruce and Demi obviously still take care of one another is really beautiful, and it's undoubtedly been good for their kids. It's also cool that Emma is on board with the family's configuration.
And from what sources close to the family have said, it really does work well for everyone. A family friend told People, "They were all celebrating Bruce's youngest daughter. Demi and Emma are very close. They have vacationed together many times in the past and get along great. It really is one happy family."
Demi was also on-hand to celebrate Bruce and Emma's 10th wedding anniversary last year. Emma said the decision to invite Demi was easy: "She welcomed me into her family like I welcomed her into ours. Again, I have so much respect for her. I have so much respect for how Bruce and Demi worked through their divorce to be able to put their children first. I learned so much from that and grew so much from watching that. It was important for her to be there. She was at our first wedding. I loved having her there again. I wouldn’t do it without her."
Much to the delight of many, Demi was even the surprise guest at a Comedy Central roast of Bruce. She joked that she was "married to Bruce for the first three Die Hard movies, which makes sense because the last two sucked."
She added: "People wonder why our marriage came to an end, and in all honesty I think it was because some jealousy started to creep in. I think Bruce never really got over the fact that I rocked the bald look better than he did.
"After our divorce, he said he considered the end of our marriage his biggest failure, but Bruce, don’t be so hard on yourself, you’ve had much bigger failures. I mean Planet Hollywood, Hudson Hawk, Striking Distance, campaigning for Michael Dukakis, turning down Clooney’s role in Ocean’s Eleven to focus on playing the harmonica?"
Bruce has also commented on the interest in his home life: "I’m much more proud of being a father than being an actor. The thing people find most remarkable about my life now is that I’m close to Demi."
Demi has shared similar sentiments, noting, "Time is an amazing equalizer. If you stay true to yourself and keep moving forward, things come around."
Emma has even learned a thing or two from the pair: "I have so much respect for her. I have so much respect for how Bruce and Demi worked through their divorce to be able to put their children first. I learned so much from that and grew so much from watching that."
