Bruce Willis and his family. Image: Instagram/@demimoore
A high-spirited Bruce Willis had a simple 68th birthday celebration at his home together with his five daughters, his wife Emma and his ex-wife, American actress Demi Moore.
In a video shown by Moore on her Instagram page on Monday, March 20, Bruce was surrounded by his loved ones while they were all singing a birthday song. He then blew out his birthday candle which was on a pie held by Emma.
“Happy birthday, BW! So glad we could celebrate you today. Love you and love our family,” Moore greeted him. “Thank you to everyone for the love and warm wishes—we all feel them.”
The former couple’s daughters Rumer, Scout and Tallulah also sent their birthday greetings to Bruce through their respective Instagram pages. This was the first time the actor’s family shared a recent video of him after his dementia diagnosis was made public in February.
Emma, for her part, marked her husband’s birthday with a video compilation of their moments together, asking the public to continually pray for him.
She also admitted that she welcomed the occasion crying because it was “one of those days of feeling the grief and sadness.”
“I always get this message or people always tell me that, ‘Oh you’re so strong. I don’t know how you do it’—I’m not given a choice. I wish I was,” she said.
“Sometimes in our lives, we have to put our big girl panties on and get to it. And that’s what I’m doing,” she continued. “But I do have times of sadness [and] grief every day, and I’m really feeling it today on his birthday.”
Bruce’s family announced in February that his aphasia diagnosis had progressed into frontotemporal dementia (FTD), an umbrella term for disorders affecting the areas of the brain that deal with personality, behavior and language.
Earlier this month, Emma appealed to paparazzi to keep their space from Bruce after the actor was followed and got yelled at while he was out having coffee with his friends. /ra