moonlighting creator glenn gordon caron, who is still close with bruce willis, is giving a heartbreaking update on the actor’s health as he battles dementia.
“i have tried very hard to stay in his life,” caron said in an interview with the new york post . “i’m not always quite that good but i try and i do talk to him and his wife [emma heming willis] and i have a casual relationship with his three older children.”
“my sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who i am,” he said of his visits with his moonlighting star. “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.”
advertisement
caron was speaking to the post to promote the streaming debut of moonlighting on hulu in the u.s.
caron told the post that abc initially didn’t want willis for the part of private detective david addison.
last month, emma appeared on the today show alongside susan dickinson, head of the association for frontotemporal degeneration (aftd), to promote world ftd week.
advertisement
“dementia is hard,” emma said on today . “it’s hard on the person diagnosed, it’s also hard on the family. and that is no different for bruce, or myself, or our girls. when they say this is a family disease, it really is.”
exclusive: in honor of world frontotemporal dementia awareness week, bruce willis’ wife emma heming willis speaks to @hodakotb about the condition in her first interview since his diagnosis.
— today (@todayshow) september 25, 2023
“it was the blessing and the curse,” emma said of receiving bruce’s diagnosis. pic.twitter.com/vy5yhvjzif
willis stepped away from acting in march 2022 after his family revealed he was suffering from aphasia — a neurological affliction that leaves a person unable to communicate.
during her appearance on today , emma said that learning her husband’s diagnosis was both “the blessing and the curse.” the former model said that the family was grateful to “finally understand what is happening.” but she added “it doesn’t make it any less painful.”
advertisement