Demi Moore is giving insight into what it’s like to care for someone who has dementia amid her ex-husband Bruce Willis’ battle.
Willis, 68, stepped back from acting in 2022, after being diagnosed with aphasia.
In February 2023, Moore and his loved ones further revealed that his condition had worsened and that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
“What message do you have for people out there who have family members who have dementia? Who are maybe caring for them or in their lives?” Andy Cohen, 55, asked Moore on his SiriusXM show Radio Andy on Tuesday.
“I think the most important thing I could share is just to meet them where they’re at,” Moore, 61, replied.
“When you let go of who they’ve been or who you think they [should be], or who even you would like them to be, you can then really stay in the present and take in the joy and the love that is present and there for all that they are, not all that they’re not,” she continued.
Moore’s “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” co-star Chloë Sevigny then chimed in: “I’m gonna use that when I go home and see my mom next. Not that she has dementia, but she is really annoying.”
The action star announced he was retiring from acting in 2022 after he was diagnosed with aphasia. scoutlaruewillis/InstagramThe “St. Elmo’s Fire” actress and her daughters she shares with Willis — Rumer, 35, Scout, 32, and Tallulah, 29 — have been rallying around the “Die Hard” actor since his diagnosis went public.
Willis and his spouse, Emma Heming Willis, 45, are also parents of daughters, Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, 9.
“Bruce has good days and bad days, but in the last two months, there are many more bad days than good,” an insider explained to Us Weekly last month.
“When you let go of who they’ve been or who you think they [should be], or who even you would like them to be, you can then really stay in the present,” Moore said. AFP via Getty Images“This experience has brought the whole family even closer together. No one knows how much time Bruce has left, so they’re soaking up every moment they get with him.”
A second source revealed that the loved ones are basically living together, as they’re “all there all the time” at his home.
“Once Bruce was diagnosed, everyone came together to keep his memory of the family intact and to be there as a constant reminder [that they] love him. [Everything] revolves around him,” the source added.
The Willis family has been rallying around him as he recuperates. Instagram/@demimooreMoore is reportedly the “facilitator” and the one responsible for bringing the family together.
“Sadly, there’s this ticking clock connected to Bruce’s condition,” the source noted. “Everyone has come together for Bruce. They’re thankful they have each other.”
In October 2023, “Moonlighting” creator Glenn Gordon Caron fondly opened up about working with Willis in an interview with the Post.
“I’m not always quite that good but I try and I do talk to him and his wife and I have a casual relationship with his three older children,” Caron said at the time. “I have tried very hard to stay in his life. He’s an extraordinary person. 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. He loved life and … just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest.”
He added: “So the idea that he now sees life through a screen door, if you will, makes very little sense. He’s really an amazing guy.”
“My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am,” he went on. “He’s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader — he didn’t want anyone to know that — and he’s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce.”
