Bruce Willis’ early dementia signs were mistaken for a childhood stutter

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Bruce Willis’s early dementia signs were initially mistaken because the return of his childhood stutter.

In an interview with Town & Country, the Die Hard actor’s spouse Emma Heming Willis revealed that her husband’s preliminary signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) were dismissed as a consequence of his lifelong battle with a stutter.

“Bruce has always had a stutter, but he has been good at covering it up,” she mentioned, noting that his stutter had motivated him to pursue appearing. “He went to college and there was a theater teacher who said, ‘I’ve got something that’s going to help you.’ From that class, Bruce realized that he could memorize a script and be able to say it without stuttering. That’s what propelled him into acting.”

However, they quickly realized his struggles went far past a stutter, as Willis was later recognized with a symptom of FTD often called aphasia – a situation that impacts speech and language talents.

According to the Mayo Clinic, docs use FTD as an umbrella time period for a group of problems that primarily impression the frontal and temporal lobes of the mind. These areas of the mind are accountable for managing character, conduct, and language.

Bruce Willis was first diagnosed with aphasia in 2022, before his family revealed his official FTD diagnosis one year later
Bruce Willis was first recognized with aphasia in 2022, earlier than his household revealed his official FTD prognosis one yr later (Getty Images for Film at Lincoln)

“For Bruce, it started in his temporal lobes and then has spread to the frontal part of his brain. It attacks and destroys a person’s ability to walk, think, make decisions,” Heming Willis defined.

“As his language started changing, it [seemed like it] was just a part of a stutter, it was just Bruce,” the 46-year-old added. “Never in a million years would I think it would be a form of dementia for someone so young.”

“I say that FTD whispers, it doesn’t shout,” she continued. “It’s hard for me to say, ‘This is where Bruce ended, and this is where his disease started to take over.’ He was diagnosed two years ago, but a year prior, we had a loose diagnosis of aphasia, which is a symptom of a disease but is not the disease.”

In February 2023, Willis’s household revealed the Hollywood motion star had been formally recognized with FTD, calling the situation “a cruel disease.” In the joint assertion shared with the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, they mentioned that for the reason that situation is the most typical type of dementia, it may possibly take years for most to get a prognosis.

“Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead. As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research,” learn the assertion signed by Heming Willis, in addition to the actor’s ex-wife Demi Moore and their kids.

“Bruce always believed in using his voice in the world to help others, and to raise awareness about important issues both publicly and privately.”

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