The Indecent Proposal star has said she has had to let go of the person her husband used to be and accept the new and different sides to him, amid his battle with the condition
Actress Demi Moore has confessed how “difficult” it has been to watch ex-husband Bruce Willis struggle with dementia.
The 70-year-old star of the Die Hard flicks was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in February 2023. Demi admitted it had been hard watching someone who was “so vibrant and strong” change.
But she added there was an “incredible sweetness” to the person that he had become.
She told The Oprah Podcast: “It’s difficult. It’s hard to see somebody who was so vibrant and strong and so directed shift into this other parts of themself.
“But, my particular perspective is, one, I really always say it’s so important just to meet them where they’re at. 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.”
Demi – who was married to Bruce between 1987 and 2000 – is determined to be “present” for the actor.
The Hollywood star – who has Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31, with Bruce – said: “If you replay where it was and what you’ve lost, it only creates anxiety and grief.
“So when you stay present, there is so much — and there’s still so much of him there. And it may not always be verbal, but it is beautiful, given the givens.”
Demi has also expressed her support for Bruce’s current wife, Emma Heming Willis.
Emma has explored her experiences with Bruce in a new book called The Unexpected Journey: Finding Hope and Purpose on the Caregiving Path, and Demi claims that she’s “done a masterful job” in caring for the actor.
She said: “There is no road map for how to deal with this.
“So much fell on Emma to really figure this whole thing out.
“And the most beautiful thing, and she talks about this in the book, was recognising the importance for caregivers that they have to take care of themselves … I really think she’s done a masterful job.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
