Bruce Willis is ‘incommunicative,’ close friend says in heartbreaking dementia update

Bruce Willis’ fight with frontotemporal dementia is becoming more and more difficult every day.

The Die Hard actor, 68, was first diagnosed with aphasia last year, though his diagnosis eventually progressed into FTD, symptoms of which include personality changes, trouble communicating, mobility issues, and decreased self awareness.

The star has since retreated from public life – with his wife Emma Heming Willis providing updates – and now his good friend and collaborator, Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron, gave more insight into Bruce’s life today.

Speaking with The New York Post, Glenn said: “I have tried very hard to stay in his life,” adding: “I’m not always quite that good but I try and I do talk to him and his wife [Emma Heming Willis] and I have a casual relationship with his three older children.”

Addressing the difficult changes he’s seen in Bruce, he continued: “The thing that makes [his disease] so mind-blowing is [that] if you’ve ever spent time with Bruce Willis, there is no one who had any more joie de vivre than he,” adding: “He loved life and… just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest.”

“My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am,” he explained, before revealing that the actor “is not totally verbal,” and that he is “seeing life through a screen door.”

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“He used to be a voracious reader,” noting: “He didn’t want anyone to know that,” and continued: “He’s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce.”

MORE: Bruce Willis’ daughter Rumer shares emotional message about ‘whirlwind life’ amid his dementia

MORE: Bruce Willis’ daughters react to Emma Hemings heartbreaking update

“When you’re with him you know that he’s Bruce and you’re grateful that he’s there,” he did say, before making a heartbreaking confession: “But the joie de vivre is gone.”

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Glenn’s 1980s show Moonlighting, in which Bruce starred as detective David Addison opposite Cybill Shepherd as Maddie Hayes, was the star’s big break, and his wife Emma recently celebrated that the ABC comedy drama is making its streaming debut on Hulu this week.

MORE: Bruce Willis’ youngest daughters are so grown up as they enjoy beach day with sister Rumer

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“I know he’s really happy that the show is going to be available for people, even though he can’t tell me that,” Glenn also told the Post, adding: “When I got to spend time with him we talked about it and I know he’s excited.

“The process [to get Moonlighting on Hulu] has taken quite a while and Bruce’s disease is a progressive disease, so I was able to communicate with him, before the disease rendered him as incommunicative as he is now, about hoping to get the show back in front of people,” he further said.

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