Demi Moore Says It's 'Difficult' to See 'Vibrant' Ex Bruce Willis 'Shift' Due to Dementia

NEED TO KNOW

• Demi Moore said it's "difficult" to witness ex-husband Bruce Willis "shift" amid his dementia battle

• The actress, who shares three daughters with Bruce, said, however, "there's still so much of him there"

• Moore said she has "so much compassion" for Bruce's wife Emma Heming Willis

Demi Moore is sharing the emotional difficulties of watching Bruce Willis decline due to dementia.

On a new installment of The Oprah Podcast, host Oprah Winfrey speaks to Emma Heming Willis about her book The Unexpected Journey: Finding Hope and Purpose on the Caregiving Path.

Emma, 49, shares two daughters with Bruce, whom she married in 2009, and she is opening up about frontotemporal dementia (FTD) awareness and her caregiving experience.

In March 2022, the Willis family revealed that Bruce, now 70, was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that affects the ability to communicate. Emma then shared her husband's FTD diagnosis less than a year later.

During the episode, Winfrey, 71, played a clip from a separate interview with Moore, who remains close to ex-husband Bruce, with whom she shares three daughters; they separated in 1998.

"How has it been for you personally to watch this moment, someone you have shared much of your life with and children with suffer from this disease?" asked Winfrey.

Moore, 62, said, "It's difficult. It's hard to see somebody who was so vibrant and strong and so directed shift into this other parts of themself."

"But," continued The Substance actress, "my particular perspective is, one, I really always say it's so important just to meet them where they're at. Don't have an expectation of them needing to be who they were or who you want them to be. And when you do that I find that there is an incredible sweetness and something that's soft and tender and loving. Perhaps it is more playful and childlike in certain sense because of how much more caretaking they need."

Moore added that the "most important" thing for her is "showing up in being present," because "if you project where it's going, it only creates anxiety."

"If you replay where it was and what you've lost, it only creates anxiety and grief," she said. "So when you stay present, there is so much — and there's still so much of him there. And it may not always be verbal, but it is beautiful, given the givens."

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During the segment, Moore also told Winfrey that she has "so much compassion for Emma" being the caregiver to Bruce, and the Oscar nominee acknowledged that "being the ex-wife, even though our family is very connected, is an interesting position."

"There is no road map for how to deal with this," she said, adding, "So much fell on Emma to really figure this whole thing out. And the most beautiful thing, and she talks about this in the book, was recognizing the importance for caregivers that they have to take care of themselves. ... I really think she's done a masterful job."

In October 2024, Moore expressed a similar sentiment about being present when she offered an update about Bruce while receiving an honor at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

"The disease is what the disease is. And I think you have to be in real deep acceptance of what that is," she said at the time. "But for where he's at, he is stable."

"What I always encourage is to just meet them where they're at. When you're holding on to what was, I think it's a losing game," she added. "But when you show up to meet them where they're at, there is great beauty and sweetness."

Emma Heming Willis' book The Unexpected Journey is available Sept. 9.

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