Bruce Willis' first dementia symptom spotted by his wife years before diagnosis

Bruce Willis' wife, Emma Heming Willis, has opened up about the early signs that something was wrong with the actor's health. The 69 year old star of Die Hard took a step back from acting to focus on his health and family after revealing his aphasia diagnosis in 2022.

A year on, his family shared that he also suffers from frontotemporal dementia. Emma, 46, disclosed that Bruce's issues began with his language skills.

"For Bruce, it started with language. He had a severe stutter as a child," she said. She recounted how a college theatre teacher helped him overcome his stutter through script memorisation, which led him to pursue acting.

Both Emma and Bruce's ex-wife Demi Moore have been keeping fans informed about his condition. Emma acknowledged that Bruce always managed his stutter well, but when his language started to change, she initially thought it was related to his stutter, not realising it was an early symptom of a more serious condition, reports Surrey Live.

"As his language started changing, it (seemed like it) was just a part of a stutter, it was just Bruce. Never in a million years would I think it would be a form of dementia for someone so young," Emma told Town and Country.

Years passed before the renowned actor received a dementia diagnosis, a condition frequently misidentified, misinterpreted, or overlooked, as described by his daughter Emma.

Although the actor's speech has significantly deteriorated, his daughter Tallulah expressed gratitude in a Vogue article that his physical capabilities remain unaffected.

"I keep flipping between the present and the past when I talk about Bruce: he is, he was, he is, he was," she pondered. "That's because I have hopes for my father that I'm so reluctant to let go of. I've always recognised elements of his personality in me, and I just know that we'd be such good friends if only there were more time."

Dementia, including the Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) variant, typically progresses gradually, with symptoms intensifying over an extended period. The diagnostic process can be intricate, involving blood tests, brain scans, cognitive evaluations, and occasionally lumbar punctures, which, according to the NHS, 'may be useful to rule out Alzheimer's disease as the cause of symptoms'.