Rumer Willis reveals her baby’s name was inspired by a typo
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actress has revealed that she and boyfriend Derek Richard Thomas named their newborn baby “Louetta” due to a typo.
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Rumer Willis is embroiled in a tense legal battle over custody of her 3-year-old daughter Louetta with ex Derek Richard Thomas.
In July, Thomas, 30, filed a petition in Los Angeles seeking to establish a relationship with the actress, 37, requesting visitation orders and joint legal and physical custody of Louetta, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY.
Willis has filed multiple responses since the beginning of the year, and in her Jan. 21 filing, she alleged that Thomas “engaged in an ongoing pattern of emotional abuse” during their two-year relationship, “often in the presence of or while confined in a car with a minor child.”
She claimed that Louetta’s “continued coercive control through prolonged, cyclical verbal attacks that were either unable or unwilling to stop” left her “visibly traumatized” and resulted in her “crying a lot, being irritable, and having difficulty napping or sleeping.”
Willis and Thomas went to mediation in August, where they reached a temporary custody agreement.
The arrangement allowed Thomas to spend six to seven hours a day with Louetta in Los Angeles or Sun Valley, where Willis and Louetta lived, according to the documents. Willis also agreed to facilitate communication and visits between the singer and her daughter.
Willis said in a January response that Thomas “is not taking advantage of his essentially unlimited custody time with his daughter at Sun Valley. Instead, he is making every visit about himself and his needs with a constant combative aggressiveness that seeks only to create and stay there, creating problems rather than seeking easy, readily available solutions.”
Willis also claimed that Thomas was aware that Thomas was in Los Angeles to see his father, Bruce Willis, who has frontotemporal dementia, and that it was causing “significant stress and confusion” regarding their custody plans and interactions.
“[Thomas]has made it clear that this is not important to him,” she said in the filing, adding that “he has often waived time with Louetta in favor of agreeing to very basic requests, such as maintaining Louetta’s napping habits and allowing nanny visits.”
She asked for the temporary agreement to be made permanent, with amendments that would limit the hours to three to four days a week and “restrict the child’s driving, have him supervised by a nanny at no cost, and not allow his girlfriend to be present due to relationships and known fights in front of the child.”
Willis also asked the court to order Thomas to undergo a 730 Child Custody Evaluation, a mental health evaluation, saying Thomas has shown a “lack of ability to responsibly parent his young child by putting his needs above his own.” Ms Willis also claimed that Mr Thomas had a “history of erratic and abusive behavior during relationships” and cited “his gross abusive and hostile behavior” during their time together.
Although Willis is abstinent from drugs and alcohol, Willis further claimed to be a “chronic daily drug user.” Although she doesn’t know what his habits are after their breakup in 2024, she said, “His behavior and personality traits are typical of drug users: emotionally abusive, irrational, constant bickering, illogical resentment, hostility, immaturity, impulsiveness, lack of ambition, joblessness, and an inability to even consider other people’s needs above his own.”
In a separate filing, Thomas denied the drug abuse allegations as “false.”
Demi Moore told court she saw Thomas being ‘aggressive’ and ‘erratic’
As part of her application in January, Willis’ mother Demi Moore wrote a five-page statement about her experience with Thomas, claiming he had been acting “very strange” since they first met in June 2022. The Substance star, 63, said Willis was “constantly under stress” during her pregnancy due to their relationship and that Thomas “always put himself and his needs first.”
“Derek always sucks the joy out of every encounter I have with him,” Moore said. “He wants to put Rumer at odds with our family, causing Rumer unnecessary stress and fear to this day.”
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Moore claimed that during Willis’ home birth, Thomas “entered the delivery bed in an aggressive and abrupt manner” and asked Willis to come out, before he “got angry and pouted and took everything into his own hands”, “effectively ruining what was supposed to be one of the happiest moments of her life”.
When Louetta was a newborn, Moore claimed Thomas was “arguing” with Willis over wanting to smoke marijuana around the baby.
“Rumer, my other daughters, and I became concerned that Rumer was unstable,” Moore wrote. “Rumer told me that Derek was always getting into fights and putting her under extreme stress. She said she wouldn’t let her sleep at night because he wanted to keep arguing into the night.”
Thomas maintains parental competence and denies Willis’ accusations
In a written statement following Willis’ January response, Thomas said, “I did not engage in any form of domestic violence, including active ‘coercive control,'” and that while her relationship with Willis was “unhealthy,” there was “no violence, physical or psychological aggression, or intimidation from my side.”
Mr Thomas said he and Willis have a “great, loving, very supportive relationship with our daughter” and insisted he was “a very consistently involved father”.
“At no time have any legitimate questions been raised regarding my parenting or ability to meet Louetta’s every need,” he said. “Louetta has never suffered for any reason, suffered no injury of any kind, experienced any trauma or emotional or physical abuse, or been neglected while in my care. (Willis) has not detailed a single credible instance of abuse or neglect by me.”
