Demi Moore has opened up about her ex-husband Bruce Willis‘ health, telling Drew Barrymore that he is “in a stable place.”
During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show to plug her upcoming horror flick The Substance, Moore, 61, spoke about Willis’ battle with dementia, telling the talk show host that she sees him every week when she’s in Los Angeles.
“Given the givens, he is in a stable place,” Moore, who was married to Willis from 1987 to 2000, said.
She also revealed the advice she gives their three daughters — Rumer, Scout and Tallulah — in helping them cope with their father’s illness. “What I say to my kids is you meet them where they’re at. You don’t hold on to who they were or what you want them to be, but who they are in this moment,” she said. “And from that, there is such beauty and joy and loving and sweetness.”
Since their split more than 20 years ago, Moore and Willis have remained close. When Willis married his second wife Emma Heming in 2009, Moore attended their wedding. And when they renewed their vows a decade later, Moore was there again to show her support.
Moore said that as Willis’ illness worsens, she tries to spend as much time as she can with the actor.
“When I’m in L.A., I go over every week, and I really treasure the time that we all share,” she said.
When he celebrated his 69th birthday in March, Moore, posted a picture of Willis sitting in an armchair and clasping her arm as the two talked. “Happy birthday, BW! We love you and are so grateful for you,” she captioned it.
During an interview with E! News last month, Tallulah said her dad “is the same, which in this situation is a good thing.”
“Our visits have so much love and I feel that. That overarches anything for me is being able to have that connection,” she added.
Tallulah, 30, said their experiences together now have “really created an opportunity for more love for my family.”
“I know he knows how much I love him. I know how much he loves me, I know how much he loves all of us,” she said. “It’s a hard thing for anyone going through this.”
She also opened up about how her family have strengthened their bond with one another following his “painful” dementia diagnosis.
“There’s so much love in our family,” Tallulah added. “It’s love that is very supportive and very sturdy. There’s not a fragility to the support or conditionality to how we support each other.”
In March 2022, Willis’ family announced that he had been diagnosed with Aphasia and would be “stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
Last year, his loved ones revealed that he was suffering from a type of dementia known as frontotemporal dementia.
“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). Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” they shared in a message with his fans.
According to the Mayo Clinic, frontotemporal dementia is an “umbrella term for a group of brain disorders that primarily affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. These areas of the brain are generally associated with personality, behaviour and language.”
Earlier this year, Bruce’s wife Heming — with whom he shares two daughters, Mabel 12, and Evelyn, 10 — said that following her husband’s diagnosis his family has embarked on a “new chapter.”
“There is grief and sadness. There’s all of that. But you start a new chapter,” she said, adding that his family’s life is now filled “with love, it’s filled with connection, it’s filled with joy, it’s filled with happiness,” she said.