Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with aphasia and will be stepping away from his decades-long career, his family announced Wednesday.
Aphasia is a medical condition that can affect a person’s ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written, according to the Mayo Clinic. It typically occurs after a stroke or a head injury.
“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” the 67-year-old’s family wrote in a statement shared to each of their Instagram accounts, adding that he will be “stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
“This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support,” the family continued. “We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.
“As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up’ and together we plan to do just that,” concluded the statement, which was signed by his wife, Emma Heming, his ex-wife, Demi Moore, and his five children, Rumer, 33, Scout, 30, Tallulah, 28, Mabel, 9, and Evelyn, 7.
The main treatment for aphasia is speech and language therapies with involvement from family members who help the patient communicate. There are three types of aphasia: expressive, comprehensive and global.
In expressive, a person understands communication better than he or she can speak. In comprehensive, the patient speaks in long, incoherent sentences and in the latter, global, a person has poor comprehension and communication skills.
Willis’ family didn’t reveal the cause of his aphasia, but he has sustained various on-set injuries throughout his career. In 2004, Willis sued the makers of his 2003 action movie “Tears of the Sun” over his injuries.
Willis’s lawsuit against Revolution Studios claimed that he suffered “extreme mental, physical and emotional pain” after an on-set incident the year before the movie was released when he was struck on the forehead by a “projectile” during the detonation of pyrotechnics by the special effects unit, The Guardian reported at the time.
He also lost two-thirds of his hearing after a machine gun fired extra loud blanks on the set of “Die Hard.”
Willis has multiple projects completed as well in post-production, including “Vendetta,” “Fortress: Sniper’s Eye” and “White Elephant.” It is unclear what will happen with “Fortress 3,” which is currently in pre-production.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Die Hard” star’s blended family — including Moore, 59, and Heming, 43 — have been holed up at their Idaho compound. While the arrangement felt odd to outsiders, the “G.I. Jane” star said she considered Heming to be her “sister.”
“Our children are sisters and yet there is no name for what our family connection is to one another,” Moore wrote on Instagram in March 2021 in honor of International Women’s Day. “We are mothers united, sisters bonded on this crazy adventure of life. Emma is a beautiful mother dedicated to her family, an absolutely gorgeous woman and now she can add business entrepreneur to her resume.
“Her drive, determination and passion is uplifting and the woman that she is absolutely inspiring,” she concluded.
