How is Bruce Willis doing? Wife shares video of Hollywood actor making first public outing since dementia diagnosis - thanking LA firefighters

Bruce Willis stepped out in public to thank first responders as wildfires continue throughout Los Angeles. On Thursday (16 January), his wife Emma Heming Willis shared a black-and-white video to Instagram showing Willis wearing a New York Yankees cap and shaking hands with a Los Angeles police officer and posing for a photo.

The video was set to the Led Zeppelin song "Going to California." Emma, 46, wrote in her caption that the video was taken on Wednesday (15 January).

She wrote: "Spotting a first responder, Bruce never missed a chance to show his gratitude with a heartfelt handshake and a “thank you for your service.” Yesterday was no different”.

"This makes my heart so freaking full," Tallulah Wilis, Bruce's youngest daughter with ex-wife Demi Moore, wrote in a comment on Emma's post. The new Instagram video appears to be the first time the Die Hard icon, 69, has been seen out in public since 2022, when his family announced that the actor had been diagnosed with the language disorder aphasia and would be stepping away from acting.

In 2023, the Willis family shared that Bruce had received a more specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a progressive condition which causes the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain to atrophy. According to the NHS: “Frontotemporal dementia is an uncommon type of dementia that causes problems with behaviour and language. Dementia is the name for problems with mental abilities caused by gradual changes and damage in the brain. Frontotemporal dementia affects the front and sides of the brain (the frontal and temporal lobes).”

Emma and Bruce share two daughters: Mabel Ray Willis, 12, and Evelyn Penn Willis, 10. The actor also shares older daughters Rumer Glenn Willis, 36, and Scout LaRue Willis, 33, with The Substance star Moore, whom he was married to from 1987 to 2000.