Bruce Willis dementia decline, Digi Mart USA News: Former Hollywood action star Bruce Willis is reportedly “like a baby” as a result of his years-long battle against frontotemporal dementia, according to a report by the Daily Mail as published by The Nightly. The 71-year-old’s decline came four years after he was initially diagnosed with aphasia, which forced him to retire from acting in 2022.
Aphasia is defined as an acquired language disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that control speech and language processing. Willis was subsequently diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023, a condition that has also left him with limited ability to communicate.
The Daily Mail reports that the Pulp Fiction star is now “living in his own world.” A source close to Willis told the Mail that the actor, who was last seen in public a year ago, is unaware of the full extent of his rapid cognitive decline. “He knows his life is different, but he doesn’t think it is that different,” the source said.
“He doesn’t talk about it or even complain much. He senses something is off, but he doesn’t have a full grasp of it.”
The source said that while Willis’s physical appearance was still that of a “healthy middle-aged man,” his personality had drastically changed from his younger years, “when he had a lot of energy and talked a ton.” “Sometimes he looks like a baby who is staring at an object with curiosity, just taking it in,” the source said.
Willis is currently being cared for by his wife, Emma Heming Willis, whom he married in 2009. She is supported in her efforts by Willis’s former wife, Demi Moore, who split from the actor in 2000.
Willis has three daughters from his marriage to Moore, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, and two more with Heming Willis, Mabel Ray and Evelyn Penn Willis.
The toll of Willis’s condition on Heming Willis was evident in June, when she described mixed feelings about celebrating her 50th birthday. “I have not really been in the celebratory feelings of late,” she told Hoda Kotb on her podcast Making Space.
“I always wrestle with guilt. I think guilt is something that I am always carrying, but I’ve learned that it is really not helpful.”
Heming Willis said she was undecided about marking the milestone until a friend encouraged her to celebrate. “I always go back to: what would my husband want for me?” she said.
“And he would want me to have a big, fun bash. He would want me to celebrate my life with my friends and family.”
The Mail reported that Heming Willis revealed Willis now lives separately from her in a one-storey home nearby, where he receives care around the clock. She told The Sunday Times that making the decision was painful, but that it allowed her to return to being his wife.
“Ultimately, I could get back to being his wife,” she said. “And that’s such a gift.”
According to the Mail’s source, Heming Willis’s expenditure on Willis’s care now comes to more than US$30,000 a month.
