Bruce Willis' Wife Reveals Actor's Heartbreaking Wish — As His Fight With Dementia Takes Crucial Turn
Bruce Willis's health has taken a turn for the worse after he was moved into a seperate property from his family home to receive round-the-clock care.
Sept. 4 2025, Published 5:04 p.m. ET
Bruce Willis is "going downhill fast" amid his heartbreaking battle with dementia, according to insiders.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the Hollywood icon's condition has taken such a grip he "doesn't know some faces anymore", but his wife Emma Heming Willis revealed one wish he would have for his family amid this painful journey.
Willis 'No Longer Knows Faces'
Willis, here with ex-wife Demi Moore, now has trouble identfying people
A family source told the Daily Mail: "He is going downhill fast," adding, he "doesn't know some faces" anymore.
Willis's five daughters "are all spending as much time with him as they can," the insider continued. "He lights up when he sees his children."
The star's second wife Emma, 47, made the painful decision to relocate Willis in order to get the best possible treatment and the move has been backed by ex-wife Demi Moore and their three adult children, Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31.
The insider added: "There is no drama. The whole family like and support the way she is looking after Bruce. They feel he is very well taken care of. They're all dedicated to making his quality of life as good as possible."
Despite the pain and heartbreak the family is facing, Emma insisted her husband would still want her to move forward.
She said: "While the grief and sadness and trauma is here all the time, I have learned it's OK for me to also enjoy our life. Bruce would want that for me and for our kids, to not wallow in the sadness of it, but also rise to it."
Willis' second wife Emma has been supported by his family over decision to move star into new accomodation.
It is also understood that looking after him is now a "massive undertaking."
"It is dire because Bruce won't be the same again," a second insider revealed.
"Occasionally there are flashes of who he used to be, whether it is a smile or a laugh or other gestures, and everyone appreciates having those moments.
"Now when anyone is with him, they all enjoy their time together and don't make it into a sad thing. They'll dance, watch TV, have dinner together. Everyone is making the best of it considering the circumstances."
'Shift' In Personality
'Die Hard' star's ex-wife Moore, pictured with daughter Rumer, says Willis's personality has 'shifted'.
The Die Hard star's dementia diagnosis was announced to the world in February 2023 via a family statement.
The previous spring, they had revealed that the actor was suffering from aphasia, a brain disorder that affects how you speak.
But now, they wrote, Willis' condition had "progressed" to a "clear diagnosis" of frontotemporal dementia — and there are "no treatments."
The health update comes as the actor's first wife, Moore, told Oprah Winfrey of a heartbreaking "shift" in her ex-husband's personality.
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Moore says it's become 'difficult' seeing someone once so 'vibrant' change due to illness.
The 62-year-old actress, who was married to Willis from 1987 to 2000, told Winfrey it was "difficult... to see somebody who was so vibrant and strong and so directed shift into this other parts of themself."
"But... I really always say it's so important just to meet them where they're at," she added. "Don't have an expectation of them needing to be who they were or who you want them to be. And when you do that I find that there is an incredible sweetness and something that's soft and tender and loving.
"Perhaps it is more playful and childlike in certain sense because of how much more caretaking they need."
Heming, who married Willis in 2009 and gave him his other two daughters, told Diane Sawyer last week that her children — Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11 — visit their father "a lot," often for both breakfast and dinner.
"We have a way of communicating with him that is just a different, a different way, but I'm grateful. I'm grateful that my husband is still very much here," she added.
