\n<\/p>\n
It was announced by his family last March that Bruce Willis<\/strong> would retire from acting<\/a> after receiving a diagnosis<\/a> of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a more specific diagnosis<\/a> than aphasia, with which he had previously been diagnosed. Since then, Willis\u2019s family members have shared updates about his life, including the celebration of his 68th birthday<\/a> earlier this year alongside Demi Moore,<\/strong> his ex-wife, and their three children, Scout, Rumer,<\/strong> and Tallulah,<\/strong> alongside his current wife, Emma Heming Willis,<\/strong> and their two children, Mabel<\/strong> and Evelyn.<\/strong><\/p>\n This month, Willis\u2019s late-1980s ABC series Moonlighting<\/em> became available to stream<\/a> on Hulu. For five seasons, Willis and Cybill Shepherd<\/strong> revolutionized the will-they-or-won\u2019t-they couple<\/a> on TV\u2014and the actor was eager for the world to see the show again on streaming, according to Moonlight<\/em> creator Glenn Gordon Caron<\/strong>. \u201cThe process [to get Moonlighting<\/em> onto Hulu] has taken quite a while and Bruce\u2019s disease is a progressive disease. So I was able to communicate with him, before the disease rendered him as incommunicative as he is now, about hoping to get the show back in front of people,\u201d Caron recently told the New York Post<\/em><\/a>. \u201cI know it means a lot to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Caron said that he has kept in contact with Willis\u2019s wife and three older children since colleagues on the sets<\/a> of the actor\u2019s most recent films expressed concern about his welfare prior to diagnosis. \u201cI have tried very hard to stay in his life,\u201d Caron said, adding, \u201cThe thing that makes [his disease] so mind-blowing is [that] if you\u2019ve ever spent time with Bruce Willis, there is no one who had any more joie de vivre<\/em> than he. He loved life and\u2026just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest.\u201d<\/p>\n Caron said that FTD has rendered Willis largely unable to communicate, sharing that it\u2019s as if \u201che now sees life through a screen door.\u201d But he believes Willis is still able to recognize him. \u201cMy sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader\u2014he didn\u2019t want anyone to know that\u2014and he\u2019s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he\u2019s still Bruce.\u201d The creator added, \u201cWhen you\u2019re with him you know that he\u2019s Bruce and you\u2019re grateful that he\u2019s there, but the joie de vivre<\/em> is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Heming Willis, who has been married to the actor since 2009, offered her own update to Today<\/em><\/a> last month during World Frontotemporal Dementia Awareness week. She explained that while Willis\u2019s condition is \u201chard on the family,\u201d there are still \u201cso many beautiful things happening in our lives. It\u2019s just really important for me to look up from the grief and the sadness so that I can see what is happening around us. Bruce would really want us to be in the joy of what is. He would really want that for me and our family.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n