Bruce Willis’ daughter shares update on his health: ‘He’s so good’

Around Thanksgiving November 2023, Bruce Willis’ second-oldest daughter Scout Willis posted a brief clip of the actor holding her hand with the caption, “My guy.”

Scout Willis shared a sweet video over Thanksgiving of herself and her dad, Bruce Willis, who’s living with frontotemporal dementia.@scoutlaruewillis via Instagram

Scout Willis also shared another intimate moment with her father in a photo round-up celebrating the end of 2023. In the picture, she rests her head on her dad’s chest as he holds her head in his hands and they smile at each other.

The Willis family previously marked birthday on March 19, 2023, with a video of Bruce Willis’ shared to Moore’s Twitter account — the first of him since his diagnosis was announced publicly. In the sweet clip, his daughters and wife sing “Happy Birthday” to him as he jokes about their vocal range in the background.

What has Bruce Willis’ family said about his dementia?

In February 2023, the Willis family shared in a statement that they finally had a “clear diagnosis” of frontotemporal dementia, adding that “challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces.”

Since then, his family has shared at times how they’re coping with his condition.

During a May 29 TODAY appearance, Rumer Willis reflected on the support she and her family have received.

“What’s lovely is people will stop me on the street or at the airport, wherever it is, and are so effusive about how much they love him, how much of an impact he’s had on them, or just that they’re sending love to our family,” she said. “It really makes me a proud daughter, honestly, to just see how much love he’s getting

“It’s such a testament to who he is. He’s so beloved,” she added.

In March, Heming Willis also shared a powerful message about celebrating milestones with a loved one with dementia and posted sweet pics in honor of her 15th wedding anniversary.

“I can make a choice. I can wallow in sorrow or I can celebrate it. I call this the ‘remarkable reframe.’ What I know is there is so much to celebrate,” she wrote on Instagram. “Our union and connection is probably stronger than ever. We have two bright, fun and healthy daughters. We have a family unit that is built on mutual respect and admiration. And simply, I just love and adore the man I married. I’m so proud of what we have and continue to create. So, happy crystal anniversary to us! “

The mother of two previously shared a glimpse of her life caring for her husband in an Instagram post shared in late December.

“Holidays are hard. Anniversaries are hard. But for me this year, it has really been about community,” she said, adding that she’d just had a “good cry” with a close friend of hers.

Around the same time, Heming Willis shared a series of snapshots of the couple, writing, “My love and adoration for him only grows.”

In August 2023, she acknowledged that she often struggles with staying positive with caring for her husband.

“I have to make a conscious effort every single day to live the best life that I can,” she said in an Instagram video. “I do that for myself. I do that for our two children and Bruce, who would not want me to live any other way.”

“So I don’t want it to be misconstrued that, like, I’m good — because I’m not good,” she continued. “But I have to put my best foot forward for the sake of myself and my family.”

For Father’s Day 2024, Rumer Willis reflected on what it was like to have her father meet his first grandchild.

“Seeing my father hold my daughter today was something I will treasure for the rest of my life. His sweetness and love for her was so pure and beautiful,” Rumer Willis wrote on Instagram. “Papa I’m so lucky to have you and so is Lou. Thank you for being the silliest, most loving, coolest Daddio a girl could ask for. Best Girl Dad in the game …”

Also for Father’s Day 2023, Heming Willis shared that she has “deep appreciation and respect” for her husband as he continues to father daughters Mabel and Evelyn, as his illness progresses. “Where it might not be ‘conventional,’ what he’s teaching them will span generations. Unconditional love, kindness, strength, compassion, patience, generosity, resilience,” she wrote on Instagram.

What happened to Bruce Willis?

Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, aka FTD, and had to retire from acting. Before his family publicly shared his diagnosis in 2023, they revealed in March 2022 that he had to step away from Hollywood because he was experiencing a disorder called aphasia. Aphasia occurs when a person struggles with speaking, understanding, reading or writing.

Aphasia can be caused by a head injury or stroke, and the onset will usually be sudden, or it can be caused by a disease such as frontotemporal dementia, in which case the communication difficulties get worse over time, experts previously told TODAY.com.

In an essay for Vogue published in May 2023, Bruce Willis’ daughter Tallulah Willis wrote that his frontotemporal dementia “chips away at his cognition and behavior day by day.”

What were the early signs of Bruce Willis’ dementia?

The early signs of Bruce Willis’ dementia included difficulty communicating, aka aphasia, and “a vague unresponsiveness,” Tallula Willis wrote in her Vogue essay, “which the family chalked up to Hollywood hearing loss: ‘Speak up! ‘Die Hard’ messed with Dad’s ears.’”

“Later that unresponsiveness broadened, and I sometimes took it personally. He had had two babies with my stepmother, Emma Heming Willis, and I thought he’d lost interest in me,” Tallulah Willis continued, later noting that this “couldn’t have been farther from the truth.”

She finally realized her father’s health was declining when she was at a wedding and the father of the bride gave an emotional speech.

“Suddenly I realized that I would never get that moment, my dad speaking about me in adulthood at my wedding. It was devastating,” she recalled. “I left the dinner table, stepped outside, and wept in the bushes.”

FTD patients sometimes have “difficulty expressing themselves, understanding what’s being spoken and figuring out the meaning of things sometimes,” Dr. Jagan Pillai, neurologist at Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, previously told TODAY.com.

Did Bruce Willis retire?

Yes, it was announced that Bruce Willis was retiring from acting in March 2022, when his family revealed that he’d been experiencing aphasia. Aphasia is a symptom associated with dementia and other illnesses that causes difficulty with communication, both in speaking and understanding written and spoken language.

What is Bruce Willis’ health condition?

Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, which includes a variety of neurodegenerative conditions, his family announced in February 2023. FTD impacts the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Its onset begins earlier than other degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, and symptoms start on average around age 58, according the Cleveland Clinic. Unlike other forms of dementia, memory difficulties aren’t the hallmark symptom of FTD.

“Most people, when they think of the word dementia, they think problems with memory and Alzheimer’s disease, but FTD doesn’t really show up as problems with memory. … It affects how people behave, how they interact with others and how they speak,” says Dr. Sami Barmada, director of Michigan Brain Bank and associate professor of neurology at University of Michigan Medicine, previously TODAY.com.

Primary progressive aphasia is a type of FTD, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Aphasia can also be caused by a stroke, and in these cases the loss of ability to speak is usually sudden. But with progressive aphasia, as Bruce Willis likely has, it usually starts out mild and gets worse as time passes, Barmada said.

Other common symptoms of FTD include apathy or unwillingness to talk, changes in personality and becoming more depressed, lack of social skills and obsessive behavior.

“It doesn’t look like a dementia or something that you can put your finger on. … Very often you’ll hear people say they just started to act really weird, and they’re not the same person,” Barmada said.

What is the life expectancy of someone with frontotemporal dementia?

The average life expectancy for someone with frontotemporal dementia, which Bruce Willis has, is seven to 13 years after diagnosis, per the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration. Cleveland Clinic said the life expectancy is seven and half years, while Barmada told TODAY.com that 10 years or longer is considered a good prognosis.