(NewsNation) — “Moonlighting” creator Glenn Gordon Caron, still good friends with Bruce Willis, told the New York Post in an article posted this week that the actor is “not totally verbal” as he continues suffering from a neurodegenerative disorder known as frontotemporal dementia.
Willis’ family announced in 2022 that he planned to stop acting after being diagnosed with aphasia. Earlier this year, the family said the “condition has progressed” into dementia.
Caron said he tries to see Willis and wife Emma Heming Willis every month or so, and he maintains a “casual relationship” with Willis’ three older children. Now that “Moonlighting” is streaming on Hulu, Willis said he’s happy his old show will be available for people, Caron the New York Post.
“He can’t tell me that,” Caron admitted, but said, “When I got to spend time with (Willis), we talked about it, and I know he’s excited.”
Caron said in the Post that no one had more joy of living than Willis and that his friend “adored waking up every morning.”
However, Willis is “not totally verbal,” and his “joie de vivre is gone,” according to Caron.
“The idea that he now sees life through a screen door, if you will, makes very little sense. He’s really an amazing guy,” Caron said.
Still, when he visits, Caron thinks Willis recognizes him.
“My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am,” he said.
Emma Heming Willis recently spoke to NBC’s “TODAY ” about the challenges her family has gone through because of Willis’ diagnosis.
“Dementia is hard,” Emma Heming Willis told the news outlet. “It’s hard on the person diagnosed; it’s also hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our girls. When they say this is a family disease, it really is.”
To TODAY, Heming Willis said it’s unclear if her husband is aware of his condition.
“It’s hard to know,” she said.