'Moonlighting' creator shares health updates on Bruce Willis' dementia: 'He's still Bruce'

Bruce Willis would retire from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia. Nearly a year later he received a more specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Since then, Willis’s family members have shared updates about his life, including the celebration of his 68th birthday earlier this year alongside Demi Moore, his ex-wife, and their three children, Scout, Rumer, and Tallulah; and his current wife, Emma Heming Willis, and their two children, Mabel and Evelyn.

New York Post in an interview published Wednesday that though the "Die Hard" actor's health is failing and "language skills are no longer available to him," he's "still Bruce."

Willis starred in the 1980s TV show "Moonlighting," which Caron created. The comedy-drama series starring Willis and Cybill Shepherd, is now streaming on Hulu, which Caron feels would make Willis "very happy."

"I know he's really happy that the show is going to be available for people, even though he can't tell me that," Caron, 69, told The Post of Willis, who is retired from acting. "When I got to spend time with him we talked about it, and I know he's excited."

"The process (to get 'Moonlighting' onto 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," Caron said. "I know it means a lot to him."

Bruce Willis would be stepping away from his career due to cognitive issues. He has since been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which is a progressive brain condition.

Part of the tragedy of Willis' diagnosis, his friend said, is that "no one who had any more joie de vivre than" Willis.

"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," Caron said. "When you're with him you know that he's Bruce and you're grateful that he's there, but the joie de vivre is gone."

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Sarah H

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