Bruce Willis, 69, wears huge smile on car outing after dementia diagnosis

Bruce Willis has been pictured smiling while on a drive, marking the first time fans have seen him looking in such good spirits in his day-to-day life since his dementia diagnosis.

The Die Hard actor,, 69, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023, after he retired from acting the previous year due to aphasia.

His wife Emma Heming Willis as well as ex-wife Demi Moore have provided fans with health updates on the legendary actor ever since.

The most recent update came earlier this month from Demi, 61, who said her ex-husband was ‘stable’.

They were married between 1987 and 2000 and have three children together – Rumer, 36, Scout, 33, and Tallulah, 30 – and they still remain close friends.

Speaking at the 2024 Hamptons International Film Festival, according to Film News, she said: ‘The disease is what the disease is. And I think you have to be in real deep acceptance of what that is. But for where he’s at, he is stable.’

Demi also spoke of how she tells her kids to behave around their dad: ‘What I always encourage is to just meet [him] where [he’s] at. When you’re holding on to what was, I think it’s a losing game.’

Now, Bruce has been spotted taking a drive in the passenger seat of a car, wearing a cap – as he has on a number of occasions in recent months.

This time though fans will be happy to see the legendary actor was smiling, looking in good spirits as enjoyed a drive through the Studio City neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

Earlier this year his wife Emma, 48 – who the actor married in 2009 and shares daughters Mabel, 12 and Evelyn, 10 with – hit back at claims Bruce had ‘no joy’ left in his life after the diagnosis.

Taking to social media, she said: ‘It’s Sunday morning and I’m triggered. I just got clickbaited. I’m just scrolling, minding my own business, and just saw a headline – and got clickbaited – that had to do with my own family.

‘The headline basically there is no more joy in my husband. Now I can just tell you that is far from the truth. I need society, and whoever is writing these stupid headlines, to stop scaring people.’

She continued: ‘[People will think] once they get a diagnosis of some kind of neuro-cognitive disease that that’s it, it’s over. Let’s pack it up. Nothing else to see here. We’re done. No, it is the complete opposite.’

This time last year Bruce’s longtime friend and Moonlighting director Glenn Gordon Caron revealed the actor was no longer ‘totally verbal’.

Saying he visits the actor monthly, Glenn told The New York Post: ‘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.’ 

He also revealed Bruce knew who he was just in the first few minutes of his visits.

Speaking on the Today show last September, Emma explained how her family were coping with the diagnosis, as she said: ‘Dementia is hard. It’s hard on the person diagnosed, it’s also hard on the family. That is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our girls. When they say this is a family disease, it really is.

‘I think it was the blessing and the curse, to finally understand what was happening, so I can be into the acceptances of what it is.

‘It doesn’t make it any less painful but just being in the acceptance, and being in the know of what is happening to Bruce, makes it a little bit easier.’

Bruce’s daughter Tallulah previously explained that they first knew something was wrong when her dad began displaying a ‘vague unresponsiveness’.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.