Los Angeles (USA), (EFE).- Actor Bruce Willis, who retired last year due to suffering from aphasia, a language disorder, has received a definitive medical diagnosis and suffers from a type of dementia that has caused worsen his health, his family reported.
“Although it is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia,” reads the official statement released by his family this Thursday through the website of the Frontotemporal Degeneration Association and Rummer Willis’s Instagram account, Eldest daughter of actor and actress Demi Moore.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) affects the frontal lobe of the brain and causes changes in behavior, as well as impairing speech.
“FTD is a cruel disease. (…) Unfortunately, communication problems are just one of the symptoms of the disease that Bruce suffers ”, adds the text attributed to his wife Emma Hemming Willis, his ex-wife Demi Moore and their children Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn.
The news comes nearly a year after Willis announced his retirement due to an initial diagnosis of aphasia, which shocked his fellow professionals.
As explained by the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA), aphasia is considered a language disorder that is caused by brain injury and affects language through expression and comprehension. In addition, it can manifest suddenly.
Willis, a Hollywood great
For almost four decades Willis has starred in numerous hits starting with “Die Hard” (1988) and its sequels and other titles such as “Armageddon” (1998) or “The Sixth Sense” (2001). He has won a Golden Globe – he has been nominated five times for those awards – and an Emmy from three nominations.
In recent years, he had substantially reduced his projects. “Motherless Brooklyn” and “Glass,” both 2019 films, were the last two big-budget projects in which she took on a leading role.