Why Bruce Willis' birthday video went viral

Bruce Willis spent an emotional 68th birthday surrounded by his family on March 19, 2023. The actor was recently diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, but he appeared happy at his party surrounded by his daughters, wife, and longtime friend and ex-wife Demi Moore.

"Happy birthday, BW! So glad we could celebrate you today. Love you and love our family. Thank you to everyone for the love and warm wishes — we all feel them," said Demi Moore on her Instagram account.

Picture: @demimoore / Instagram

On the morning of her husband's birthday, Emma Heming Willis posted a frank message on Instagram. "I have started the morning by crying," she said in a video. But, she added, she had to put on her "big girl panties" and stay strong for her husband and kids.

In another video, posted by Demi Moore later that day, we can see a very happy Bruce singing a birthday song with his family, including his wife Emma, their daughters Mabel and Evelin, and Demi Moore with their daughters Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah.

Image: @demimoore / Instagram

Even though it was a happy video, fans could not help but notice that the actor's physique had deteriorated. In fact, they said, he seemed to be missing a front tooth. The New York Post reported on the viral discussions about Bruce Willis and his missing tooth. Some expressed their shock while others told them to 'mind their own business.'

Image: @demimoore / Instagram, via New York Post

Bruce Willis and Emma Heming's lives have taken a turn in recent months, now that the actor has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Both are still readjusting to the new reality of their day-to-day lives.

If taking care of a person with dementia is already complicated, the fact that his name is Bruce Willis doesn't help. The press and paparazzi are attentive to everything that surrounds the actor, and this can add problems to his day-to-day life.

This has been confirmed by Emma Heming, wife of Bruce Willis in a video on Instagram. She recently requested that the paparazzi not chase them when they leave their house. "Just keep your space," she said.

Photo: @emmahemingwillis / Instagram

But that was not all. "If you are someone who is looking after someone with dementia, you know how difficult and stressful it can be to get someone out into the world and to navigate them safely," Hemings said, "even just to get a cup of coffee. It’s clear that there’s still a lot of education that needs to be put worth."

Photo: @emmahemingwillis / Instagram

"I know this is your job, but maybe just keep your space. Please don’t be yelling at my husband, asking how he’s doing, whatever. The woo-hooing and the yippee-ki-yay’s — just don’t do it. Give him the space." That's what she requested.

"Allow for our family or whoever’s with him that day to be able to get him from Point A to Point B safely. That’s my PSA," Emma Heming concludes her statement.

In early 2022, Bruce Willis' family announced the actor's retirement due to a degenerative disease he was suffering from called aphasia. A year later, that diagnosis evolved into "frontotemporal dementia."

It was confirmed by the actor's wife in a statement released on Instagram, where she explained the condition of Bruce Willis.

Photo: @emmahemingwillis / Instagram

"Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce's condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD," wrote Emma Heming.

In 2022, the difficult news of Bruce Willis's illness and retirement had come right after the Oscar ceremony. Rumer Willis, the actor's daughter, announced on Instagram that Bruce Willis was retiring from acting at the age of 67.

It's not that he doesn't want to act anymore. Sadly, the Hollywood star has to retire because of bad health: aphasia affected him suddenly and directly.

"Bruce has had some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia which is affecting his cognitive abilities," Rumer Willis commented on Instagram.

Bruce Willis thus ends a 42-year film career with more than 140 accredited titles and films. It had started with his debut in 1980 in 'The First Deadly Sin.'

Having given it much thought, "Bruce leaves the career that has meant so much to him," Rumer Willis said in her statement.

Bruce Willis was an actor who went from gigantic Hollywood stardom to the career of a veteran who took advantage of his fame to work as little as possible for as much money as possible. In both phases of his working life, Bruce Willis has been a happy guy in Hollywood.

Because of his recent record of 'easy' action movies, the Raspberry Awards (Razzies) for the worst actors and movies had made a special category only for Bruce Willis. In 2022, eight films of his were nominated in a special Bruce Willis section. But it allegedly didn't hurt the actor's ego very much.

Bruce Willis had rocked the '80s and '90s and was now living the life. 'Die Hard' (1988), 'Hudson Hawk' (1991), 'Pulp Fiction' (1994) and 'Armageddon' (1998, photo) are just a few examples.

The actor leaves the movie industry with an accumulated wealth of more than 250 million dollars (an estimate of Celebrity Net Worth), which will allow him to treat his condition with the best specialists.

Rumer Willis wrote that "it's a really hard time for the family." Aphasia is quite a serious diagnosis. Still, "we wanted to share this with his fans, because we know how much he means to all of you."

The statement, by the way, was signed by his wife Emma Heming, his five daughters... and Demi Moore! Despite being separated for more than two decades, the relationship between Bruce Willis and Demi Moore has always been great.

Bruce Willis attended Demi Moore's wedding with Ashton Kutcher in 2005, five years after he and Moore had divorced. In addition, they have continued to celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Easter and events like the 4th of July together. The extended family even spent part of the pandemic together!

Surely, the actress will be important to the process of Bruce Willis' adaptation to his new condition. But what is going to happen, exactly? What is aphasia, and what are its symptoms?

Aphasia is a cognitive disorder that affects the area of the brain responsible for speech and language.

In addition to affecting speech, aphasia can also reduce abilities such as expression, reading, writing, comprehension, and even problems swallowing.

(Photo: Guillaume de Germain / Unsplash)

The symptoms of aphasia can manifest themselves in various ways. For that reason, the disease is classified in four types: Expressive aphasia (problems reading or writing), receptive aphasia (problems understanding what you read or hear), anomic aphasia (problems expressing yourself) and general aphasia (trouble speaking, reading, and writing).

(Photo: Dayan Rodio / Pexels)

People with aphasia can say things that don't make sense, make up words, fail to understand a conversation, and write unconnected or meaningless sentences.

The causes of aphasia include a stroke, an infection, a tumor or brain injury, or dementia. A cerebrovascular accident can also trigger aphasia, which makes for the most serious case. It can require more than 2 years to recover and it's also possible to have permanent after-effects from the accident.

(Photo: National Cancer Institute / Unsplash)

Aphasia treatment involves a language specialist who, in some cases, must teach the patient to read, write and understand words almost from scratch.

(Photo: Fa Barboza / Unsplash)

The speech therapist is in charge of this task, which also implies extra work with online exercises and daily tasks to speed up the recovery process.

(Photo: Annie Spratt / Unsplash)

Of course, there are patients whose aphasia is so severe that the language skills affected by it cannot be recovered.

(Photo: Nik Shuliahin / Unsplash)

For now, Rumer Willis has not given details of the severity of her father's aphasia.

Whether it's possible for him to recover from the aphasia or not, Willis will be missed in Hollywood.