Demi Moore has some poignant words for families tending to a relative with dementia.
The G.I. Jane star shared her advice last week while speaking with media personality Andy Cohen, after ex-husband Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia — which affects communication and memory — and later with frontotemporal dementia.
“I think the most important thing … is just to meet them where they’re at,” she told the US presenter on his SiriusXM show Radio Andy.
“When you let go of who they’ve been or who you think they [should be] or who even you would like them to be, you can then really stay in the present, and take in the joy and the love that is present and there, for all that they are, not all that they’re not.”
Chloë Sevigny, who appeared alongside Demi to promote the FX series Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, jumped in to lighten the mood, saying: “I’m going to use that when I go home and see my mum next. Not that she has dementia, but she is really annoying.”
Demi and her family have seemed to stay positive despite the circumstances, and often provide updates about Bruce’s condition. The two share three daughters, and blended their families after Bruce remarried in 2009.
The families jointly announced Bruce’s aphasia diagnosis and retirement in 2022.
“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,” they wrote at the time.
“As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up’ and together we plan to do just that.”
Bruce and Demi got married in 1987, separated in 1998 and divorced in 2000.
The Die Hard star then married model Emma Heming two years after they met at their mutual trainer’s gym. They’ve since had two children: 11-year-old Mabel and nine-year-old Evelyn.
“My grief can be paralysing but I’m learning how to live along side it,” the model wrote on Instagram after Bruce’s aphasia diagnosis, but added that “grief is the deepest and purest form of love”.
Demi’s children with her ex — Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Willis — previously shared just how difficult it’s been to watch their father struggle.
But they’ve seemingly taken to heart Demi’s advice to be “present,” with social media posts showing their blended family celebrating him and spending time with the beloved actor.