Years before Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia and later frontotemporal dementia (FTD), subtle changes in his speech began to appear, but his wife, Emma Heming Willis, believed they were connected to a lifelong challenge he had faced: stuttering in childhood.

In 2022, Willis’ family revealed that the “Die Hard” icon would retire from acting due to a cognitive disorder. By 2023, they shared a more specific diagnosis: FTD, a rare condition that affects about 50,000 to 60,000 Americans. It gradually affects behavior, language and daily functioning.

“For Bruce, it started with language,” Heming Willis said in a recent Town and Country interview. She admitted that early shifts in his speech did not initially cause alarm because Willis had dealt with severe stuttering as a teenager.

“Bruce has always had a stutter, but he is good at covering it up. When his language started to change, it seemed like it was just part of the stuttering, it was just Bruce,” she explained.

“Never in a million years would I think it would be a form of dementia for someone so young.”

Willis’ journey reminds us that even small changes can sometimes be a signal of something bigger, especially if they overlap with lifelong traits. His story sheds light on FTD, a condition that many still know little about.