Bruce Willis’ Cognitive Decline Deepens at Age 70, Wife Reports in ABC News Interview

Los Angeles, August 27, 2025 - At 70 years old, Bruce Willis continues to grapple with the progressive effects of frontotemporal dementia, his wife Emma Heming Willis revealed today in a preview of an upcoming ABC News special. The actor, who retired from Hollywood in 2022 after an aphasia diagnosis and was officially diagnosed with FTD in 2023, remains physically mobile but is experiencing a significant decline in language and communication abilities.

In an interview conducted by Diane Sawyer, Heming Willis described her husband’s current condition, emphasizing that “it’s just his brain that is failing him. The language skills are diminishing, and we’ve adapted. We’ve developed a different way to communicate with him”. She shared that, despite these challenges, Bruce still enjoys moments of warmth and connection with family: “Sometimes you’ll get that twinkle in his eye or that spark. It’s hard to see because as quickly as those moments arrive, they fade”.

Emma Heming Willis, who has become Bruce’s full-time caregiver, detailed how the disease has stripped away his ability to engage verbally, once a hallmark trait of the famously talkative actor. “He was always the life of the party,” she noted, “but now he often seems distant-cold even-to anyone unfamiliar with our new ways of communicating”.

Today’s revelations underscore the toll that FTD has taken on one of Hollywood’s most iconic action heroes. Diagnosed with aphasia in 2022 and frontotemporal dementia a year later, Willis has not only given up acting but also much of his ability to speak and connect as he once did. His family’s openness about his condition has brought much-needed attention to FTD, a less understood form of dementia that affects personality, behavior, and language before memory.

Emma Heming Willis plans to address these issues in greater depth in her forthcoming memoir, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, set for release later this year. As fans and loved ones rally around him, the family’s candid disclosures continue to shine a light on the realities of neurodegenerative illness-and the power of love and adaptation in the face of profound loss.