“Die Hard” actor Bruce Willis’ family is said to be grappling with the retired movie star living on borrowed time just one year after revealing he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
The degenerative disease affects an individual’s ability to communicate, their behaviors, and personality. Handlers of former daytime talk show host Wendy Williams revealed she is also afflicted by the disease in February of this year.
Willis’ condition was publicized after his loved ones announced he would be stepping away from the limelight for good following his 2022 aphasia diagnosis. The language disorder ultimately progressed, developing into dementia. The star has seldomly been spotted by onlookers in the two years since his cognitive health began to decline.
However, a recent sighting of him being chauffeured around Los Angeles prompted a purported insider to speak out about the reality Willis and his family are now faced with.
“The disease has progressed to the point where his family worries they may not have much more time with Bruce left,” the person told RadarOnline in a new report. “They wonder whether he’ll even make it to his 70th birthday.”
The action film icon’s next birthday is on March 19.
Photos of Willis in the passenger seat of an SUV looking out of the window surfaced online on Sept. 21. He was dressed in a blue and white striped polo and gray jacket.
The outlet’s source said, “He rarely goes out, but when he does, it’s a carefully orchestrated operation” and that “he needs help getting ready and getting to the car.”
The individual further shared that the former Hollywood leading man has a team of around-the-clock caretakers “who supervise him and make sure he’s OK and doesn’t get confused or flustered” and “bodyguards to buffer him from the public.”
The “Unbreakable” juggernaut is best described by the insider as “vulnerable and dependent” on others. “The Bruce they remember used to be full of energy and masculine price. Now he seems helpless.”
“Charlie’s Angels” actress Demi Moore, who was formerly married to Bruce, said, “Given the givens, he’s in a stable place,” when she guest appeared on “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Sept. 13. The exes share three adult daughters, Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah.
Moore continued, “What I say to my kids is you meet them where they’re at. You don’t hold on to who they were or what you want them to be, but who they are in this moment.” Days later, Bruce was photographed, similarly to the Sept. 21 outing, taking in some sunlight on the passenger side of a vehicle.
According to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, an FTD patient can have a life expectancy between seven and 13 years after being diagnosed. But for Bruce, his memory will live on well beyond those projections.
On the Sept. 26 episode of “Dancing with the Stars,” his “Die Hard” co-star Reginald VelJohnson honored their time together in his dance number.
The night’s theme was Oscar films, to which VelJohnson and his partner Emma Slater danced the paso doble. The set featured a cop car and the actor in uniform, a nod to his character Sergeant Al Powell. “It’s a tribute to my friend Bruce Willis,” he said of the routine.