Veteran Hollywood action star Bruce Willis retired from acting two years ago after he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

This week saw Willis' wife open up about the symptoms which accompanied the actor's devastating condition. 

Wife noticed stark personality changes

Emma Heming Willis told the ABC News host  Diane Sawyer of how she initially noticed that her husband "seemed subdued" despite his normally outgoing personality.

"For someone who is really talkative, very engaged, he was just a little more quiet, and when the family would get together he would kind of just melt a little bit," she recalled.

Mrs. Willis recalled how "he felt very removed, a little cold, not like Bruce, who is very warm and affectionate to going the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary."

What's more, Mr. Willis' speech began to be marked by a stutter, a condition which he had previously overcome during childhood.

"It's just his brain that is failing him"

"Bruce is in really great health overall. It's just his brain that is failing him," she explained. "The language is going. We've learned to adapt and we have a way of communicating with him, it's just a different way."

Amid Bruce Willis' nearly three-year battle with dementia, the actor's brain is "failing him," and his ability to communicate is fading, according to his wife Emma Heming Willis. https://t.co/2gy2E7ijjU

— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) August 26, 2025

Nevertheless, Mrs. Willis stressed that there continue to be moments in which her husband reverts to his former self and exhibits a "twinkle in his eye."

"I just get transported, and it's just hard to see that because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes. It's hard, but I'm grateful that my husband is still very much here," she stated.

FTD symptoms differ from those of Alzheimer's disease

The Daily Mail noted how FTD differs from Alzheimer's disease in that sufferers initially undergo personality changes instead of exhibiting memory loss.

The newspaper also pointed out that FTD is far less common than Alzheimer's, amounting to between 50,000 and 60,000 cases in the U.S. compared with an estimated 6 million for Alzheimer's.

Dr. Bruce Miller is a Clausen Distinguished Professor of Neurology at the University of California - San Francisco, and he told ABC News that those with FTD tend to be "unaware of what is happening."

"Imagine a marriage that has been tight and beautiful and suddenly the person that you're living with has no empathy or concern for you or your family," he remarked.