Bruce Willis is no longer ‘totally verbal’ after heartbreaking dementia diagnosis, friend admits

Bruce Willis is no longer 'totally verbal' according to friend and Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron.

The 1980s TV show was something that really put Willis on the map as a star and it recently got picked up for streaming, and it made lifelong friends of Willis and Caron.

However, in a recent interview with the New York Post the Moonlighting creator offered a sad update on Willis' dementia and said he was 'not totally verbal'.

He said they'd talked about getting the show back in front of an audience 'before the disease rendered him as incommunicative as he is now' and that 'it means a lot to him'.

Caron said: "I know he’s really happy that the show is going to be available for people, even though he can’t tell me that.

"When I got to spend time with him we talked about it and I know he’s excited."

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The series creator and friend of Willis also said he tried to see the Die Hard star about once every month or so.

"I’m not always quite that good but I try and I do talk to him and his wife and I have a casual relationship with his three older children," Caron said of trying to see his friend on a regular basis before going on to praise Willis as an 'extraordinary person'.

"I have tried very hard to stay in his life. He’s an extraordinary person. The thing that makes it so mind-blowing is if you’ve ever spent time with Bruce Willis, there is no one who had any more joie de vivre than he.

"He loved life and … just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest.

"So the idea that he now sees life through a screen door, if you will, makes very little sense. He’s really an amazing guy."

He said that when he goes to see Willis in 'the first one to three minutes he knows who I am' before opening up on some of the changes he'd seen.

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Caron explained that his friend 'used to be a voracious reader' but isn't now, 'yet he's still Bruce'.

He said: "When you’re with him you know that he’s Bruce and you’re grateful that he’s there, but the joie de vivre is gone."

Willis' family announced his dementia diagnosis earlier this year following on from a diagnosis of aphasia the previous year.

His wife Emma recently explained how 'hard' it was for her husband and his family, and said she didn't know if he was fully aware of his illness.

Topics: Bruce Willis, Celebrity, Health, Mental Health

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

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