The family of action icon Bruce Willis have issued a new statement today about his health, confirming his condition has worsened and he is now dealing with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) which hinders his ability to communicate.
The news comes nearly a year after his family confirmed that the 67-year-old is stepping away from acting due to an initial diagnosis of aphasia announced publicly in Spring last year.
Wife Emma Heming Willis, ex-wife Demi Moore and his children Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn released the statement saying “While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”
The Alzheimer’s Association classifies FTD as ‘a group of disorders caused by progressive nerve cell loss in the brain’s frontal or temporal lobes’.
Nerve cell damage leads to loss of function in the brain regions and that can cause deterioration in behavior, personality and/or difficulty with speech and communication. There are no specific treatments for FTD which invariably gets worse over time and the speed of decline varies from case to case.
The family says in a statement: “As a family, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the outpouring of love and compassion for Bruce over the past ten months. Your generosity of spirit has been overwhelming, and we are tremendously grateful for it.”
The full statement can be found on Instagram.
Source: THR
