Family updates on health of Bruce Willis

Almost one year after Bruce Willis’s family announced he would give up acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, his family has revealed his “condition has progressed”.

In a statement posted on Thursday, the 67-year-old actor’s family said Willis, best known for Die Hard and Moonlighting, now has a more-specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.

The statement was posted on the website for the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration and signed by Willis’s wife, Emma Heming Willis, his ex-wife, Demi Moore, and his five children, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn.

“While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” their statement read.

“Frontotemporal dementia is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and [it] can strike anyone.”

In March 2022, Willis’s family said his aphasia had affected his cognitive abilities.

Aphasia leads to problems with speaking, reading and writing while Frontotemporal dementia causes progressive damage to either or both the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain, and can affect one or more of the following: behaviour, personality, language and movement.

The family said communication challenges were just one symptom of frontotemporal dementia.

Dementia Australia

Source: ABC