Don Johnson says it is currently a “struggle” for Bruce Willis amid dementia battle
Hollywood star Don Johnson has reflected on his lasting friendship with Bruce Willis and also spoken about his friend’s challenging ongoing battle with dementia.
Willis withdrew from public life in 2022 with his family issuing a statement explaining that it was due to him being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Since then, his family have spoken openly about caring for Willis on many occasions, and have been bravely candid about the reality of caring for a dementia sufferer.
His wife, Emma Heming Willis, will publish a book in September about her experience becoming her husband’s caregiver. Titled, An Unexpected Journey, it hopes to offer a “thoughtful, inspiring guide for those seeking support while navigating a loved one’s dementia.”
Johnson has known Willis since before the Die Hard star became an actor and was responsible for pushing him into this direction. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, he said of Willis’ current condition: “We’re best of friends and he’s having a little bit of a struggle right now.”
The actor added: “I take this moment to send him love.”
Johnson, who is currently on a press run to promote his show Doctor Odyssey, also reflected on the origins of their special relationship while on Good Morning America: “Bruce and I were friends when he was a bartender at Café Central (in New York). I’d go in there and sit with Bruce, I didn’t drink at the time but Bruce was such a good storyteller. He’d tell me about all the trials and tribulations of dealing with the drunks and the actors.”
Johnson continued: “I got to be friendly with him, and I said, ‘You know what? You’d be awesome (as an actor)’. So, I called the casting director… and I said ‘this guy is interesting, he’s special. Bring him in and read him’. She did, and cast him in Miami Vice before he was ever in anything else.”
Last September, Willis’ ex-wife, Demi Moore, who share three children together, said that he was in a “stable” condition and revealed she ensures to visit him once a week whenever she’s in Los Angeles.
“What I say to my kids is you meet them where they’re at. You don’t hold on to who they were or what you want them to be, but who they are in this moment,” she said on The Drew Barrymore Show.
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