Demi Moore, Emma Heming Willis mark Bruce Willis' 1st birthday since dementia diagnosis
Bruce Willis' family commemorated his 68th birthday Sunday with sentiments both celebratory and solemn, as the beloved "Die Hard" and "Moonlighting" star continues life with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
"So today is my husband's birthday," his wife, Emma Heming Willis, 44, said in an Instagram video. "I have started the morning by crying," she adds with a rueful chuckle, "as you can see by my swollen eyes and snotty nose. I just think it's important that you see all sides of this."
She goes on to say, "I always get this message or people always tell me that, 'Oh, like, you're so strong. I don't know how you do it.' I'm not given a choice,” she explains. "I wish I was. But I'm also raising two kids in this,” referring to her and Willis' daughters Mabel, who turns 11 on April 1, and Evelyn, who turns 9 in May. "So sometimes in our lives we have to put our big-girl panties on and get to it. And that's what I'm doing. But I do have times of sadness, every day. Grief every day. And I'm really feeling it today on his birthday."
Saying she was about to post a video collage of her husband, she mused, "I don't know why I do that to myself because the videos are like a knife in my heart. But as much as I do it for myself I do it for you because I know how much you love my husband. … [That] means so much to me, so thank you."
The minutelong reel depicts touching and playful family scenes set to Stevie Wonder's "As."
In a birthday video posted by the star's ex-wife, actor Demi Moore, and by two of the former couple's three grown daughters — Rumer, 34, Scout, 31, and Tallulah, 29 — the blended and extended family along with two of the daughters' boyfriends and a friend of Moore’s identified only as “Pipi” all sing "Happy Birthday" to the star. Bruce Willis smiles, laughs and blows out two candles on a pie.
"Happy birthday, BW! So glad we could celebrate you today. Love you and love our family," wrote Moore, 60, on Instagram, adding to Willis’ fans, "Thank you to everyone for the love and warm wishes — we all feel them."
Willis' family announced a year ago that the two-time Emmy Award winner suffered from what was initially diagnosed as aphasia, a brain disorder that affects the language centers, and that he was retiring from acting. Last month they revealed an updated diagnosis of FTD, a form of dementia with no treatment.
