Bruce Willis Celebrates Birthday With Family in First Video Since Dementia Diagnosis
Demi Moore shared a video of Bruce Willis enjoying his 68th birthday celebration with family over the weekend, just over a month after they announced that the actor had been diagnosed with dementia.
In the clip, Willis was surrounded by family singing “Happy Birthday,” as he sang along himself and blew out the candles with plenty of vigor. “Happy birthday, BW!” wrote Moore, who was married to Willis between 1987 and 2000. “So glad we could celebrate you today. Love you and love our family. Thank you to everyone for the love and warm wishes — we all feel them.”
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Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis also marked her husband’s birthday, including an Instagram video that touched on how these celebratory occasions can still cause a lot of grief and sorrow. Heming Willis admitted that she started the day by crying and said, “Sometimes in our lives, we have to put our big girl panties on and get to it, and that’s what I’m doing. But I do have times of sadness every day, grief every day and I’m really feeling it today on his birthday.”
In a follow-up post, Heming Willis added, “He is pure love. He is so loved. And I’ll be loving him always … My birthday wish for Bruce is that you continue to keep him in your prayers and highest vibrations because his sensitive Pisces soul will feel it.”
Back in February, Willis’ family announced that the actor had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a rare disease that will greatly affect the actor’s quality of life. The announcement came nearly a year after this family said the Die Hard actor would be “stepping away” from his career after being diagnosed with “aphasia,” which had been “impacting his cognitive abilities.”
In announcing the FTD diagnosis, Willis’ family said, “Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis… Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead. As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.”
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