Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Aphasia, Will Step Away From Acting

Bruce Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, which is defined as loss of ability to understand or express speech, typically caused by brain damage. The actor’s ex-wife Demi Moore posted a lengthy message on Instagram from herself and the family on behalf of Willis.

“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” the message began.

Bruce Willis will step away from acting amid aphasia diagnosis

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Demi Moore (@demimoore)

“As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”

RELATED: 12 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About Bruce Willis

The message from his family continues, “This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support. We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.”

Moore concludes the heartbreaking message, saying, “As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up,’ and together we plan to do just that.” Wills’s film acting career began back in the ’70s, and he has since become best known for movies like Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), Last Man Standing (1996), The Sixth Sense (1999), Hart’s War (2002), Hostage (2005), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Surrogates (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Rock the Kasbah (2015), Motherless Brooklyn (2019), and of course, all of the Die Hard films.