Bruce Willis' wife details 'severe' symptom that made family realise something was wrong

Die Hard actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. He has taken a step back from the spotlight to focus on his health

Bruce Willis' wife opened up about the 'severe' symptom that made his family realise something could be wrong.

The Die Hard actor, 69, took a step back from the spotlight to focus on his health and his family. The star announced his retirement following his aphasia diagnosis in 2022. A year later, Bruce's family confirmed he had also been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.

Fans have been kept updated on his health thanks to his wife, Emma Heming Willis, and his ex-wife Demi Moore. Emma, 46, admitted it wasn't until his 'language started changing' that the family started realising something was wrong with him. "For Bruce, it started with language. He had a severe stutter as a child," she explained.

"He went to college, and there was a theatre teacher who said, 'I’ve got something that’s going to help you'. From that class, Bruce realised that he could memorise a script and be able to say it without stuttering. That’s what propelled him into acting." She said that he 'always had a stutter' but was 'good at covering it up'.

Emma didn't know that his speech changing was an early sign of a health condition. "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," she said during a conversation with Town & Country.

It took another few years before he was diagnosed with dementia. Emma said the disease was often 'misdiagnosed, misunderstood or missed’. While the iconic actor's speech has especially deteriorated, his daughter Tallulah last year shared her gratitude that his physical mobility was still unaffected.

"I keep flipping between the present and the past when I talk about Bruce: he is, he was, he is, he was," she said in a Vogue piece. "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."

Many types of dementia, including FTD, develop gradually, leading to worsened symptoms over many years. There's no single test to prove that you have it, but GPs may use blood tests, brain scans, questionnaires and lumbar punctures to diagnose the condition. The latter refers to a spinal fluid test that 'may be useful to rule out Alzheimer's disease as the cause of symptoms', according to the NHS.

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