Rumer Willis was 10 years old when her famous parents actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore ended their 13 year marriage in 2000.
Now, she’s taking the lesson she’s learned from her parents separation and using them as she navigates her break up with her daughter Louetta’s father, musician Derek Richard Thomas.
If not for their many hit movies including “Die Hard,” “G.I. Jane,” “Ghost,” or “Pulp Fiction,” Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have become known for their co-parenting relationship.
Despite both of them moving on to new relationships, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have always put their kids first.
(Warning: The below link contains language some may find offensive.)
While a guest on The Glamour & Grit Podcast with Eric and Sainty Nelson, Rumer Willis talked about her parents dynamic and how it shaped how she is raising her 16-month-old daughter.
“The biggest lesson that I ever learned from my mom, that I’ve tried to input with Louetta is that our kids don’t learn because we tell them to. They learn by watching us,” Rumer Willis said.
And it was by watching her parents co-parent after their divorce that it can be done successfully.
Rumer Willis explained that Louetta could either learn that she has to stay in a relationship that wasn’t working for the sake of the kids or she could “create a dynamic where she can see you can co-parent” successfully.
“I feel incredibly lucky because my parents they got divorced when I was 10, but I never had to split vacations,” Rumer Willis explained. “I never had split birthdays. We did Christmas together.”
Now, it’s Rumer Willis’ “highest intention” was to also create a healthy dynamic with her ex, so they can continue to celebrate their daughter’s milestones together like her parents continue to do.
“And I’m so grateful that my parents made that choice.”
For Rumer Willis, it’s about being her most authentic self so that her daughter knows she doesn’t have to change or sacrifice herself just because the picture other people are seeing might look better.
“Where it gets messy is when you make it about you and your dynamic,” she continued. “I think that as long as you’re focus is prioritizing your kids and what’s for their highest good then everything else, there’s a separate place.”
“It was always about us coming together,” Rumer Willis said of how her mom and dad raised her and her two sisters. “And that she was always grateful because my dad is my dad and he will always be that.”
“There’s a way if we can remove our ego from it. There’s a desire to shift it and move it into something different, it can actually be even better.”
“I literally had a chill, sister,” Sainty Nelson responded.