The actor, cared for day and night by his wife, Emma Heming, his ex-wife, Demi Moore, and his five daughters, retired from the screen three years ago due to aphasia

On March 19, Willis, born in Germany to a classic post-war love affair, that of a German woman and an American soldier, turns 70 with simple, homey celebrations. This is his life since the illness struck him, like any other person. His last paparazzi photos date from September 2024.

They are now of a man who is not himself: as a passenger in a car, dressed in sportswear, with a blank stare. His wife, who acknowledged a year and a half ago that she doesn’t know whether he is aware of what is happening or not, even asked the paparazzi not to chase him or yell at him, because he didn’t understand what was happening and they were putting him in danger. She herself photographed him this January, greeting police officers, in very short videos, where it’s impossible to determine how he is. The hero of Die Hard is no longer the same, but now he gives visibility to another kind of hero: those who take care of others.

Heming, Willis’s wife of 16 years, has also undergone her own process of transformation, from a model who walked the catwalk for the finest Parisian fashion houses to caregiver for a man in constant need of attention. She knows that their wealth and media presence grant them a privilege that many don’t enjoy, but precisely because of this, they are also observed, for better or worse. She tries to take advantage of the spotlight as much as she can. Hence, she has announced that in 2025 she will release a book, a guide on how to care for dependent people.

There are seven women who provide life support to Bruce Willis. Seven signed the statement three years ago announcing that his diagnosis of aphasia meant the end of his career, and seven continue to support him. Heming is the main one, but she is largely accompanied by Moore, who is also the mother of Willis’s three adult daughters, who also care for their father.

In recent months, Moore has been immersed in promoting her film The Substance and her unstoppable run at film industry awards, even winning a Golden Globe, but she hasn’t forgotten her former high-profile husband. She dedicates photographs and affectionate phrases to him on her social media, and after publishing her raw memoirs in 2019, she stated that their relationship was healthier and stronger than when they were married, between the end of 1987 (just four months after they met, when she was engaged to Emilio Estevez) and the summer of 199