Demi Moore was spotted cradling her long-haired chihuahua Pilaf as she headed into JFK Airport in New York City this Wednesday.
The 62-year-old actress and her blended family have rallied around her ex-husband Bruce Willis amid his decline from frontotemporal dementia (FTP).
Meanwhile Demi herself has been experiencing a career resurgence, thanks to her Oscar-nominated turn in last year’s buzzy horror movie The Substance.
Amid her chockablock schedule, the Indecent Proposal star was seen dashing to the airport to catch a flight out of the city that never sleeps.
She emphasized her enviably slender frame in a casually stylish ensemble of a white t-shirt and jeans, topped with a black coat and matching scarf.
Letting her dark hair cascade in silken curtains over her shoulders, she sharpened her unmistakable features with makeup ahead of her flight.
Demi Moore was spotted cradling her long-haired chihuahua Pilaf as she headed into JFK Airport in New York City this Wednesday
Her sighting comes after Demi candidly revealed the heartbreak of watching her amicable ex-husband Bruce suffer through his dementia decline.
As Bruce left Hollywood amid his health problems, his blended family rallied around him, including Demi and their daughters Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31.
His primary caregiver is his second wife Emma Heming, 47, with whom Bruce, 70, shares his two youngest daughters Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11.
Now Emma has spoken frankly with Oprah Winfrey about the process of looking after Bruce, which she details in her upcoming memoir The Unexpected Journey.
In the midst of their conversation, Oprah played a clip from a recent interview she conducted with Demi, who gave her own view of the experience.
‘It’s difficult. It’s hard to see somebody who was so vibrant and strong and so directed shift into this other parts of themself,’ said Demi on Oprah’s podcast.
‘But you know, my particular perspective is one, I really always say it’s so important just to meet them where they’re at. Don’t have an expectation of them needing to be who they were or who you want them to be, and when you do that, I find that there is an incredible sweetness and something that’s soft and tender and loving,’ she added.
‘And perhaps it is more playful and childlike in certain sense, because of how much more caretaking they need,’ the G.I. Jane actress acknowledged.
Amid her chockablock schedule, the Indecent Proposal star was seen dashing to the airport to catch a flight out of the city that never sleeps
The 62-year-old actress and her blended family have rallied around her ex-husband Bruce Willis amid his decline from frontotemporal dementia (FTP); the pair are pictured in 2022
‘And really, the most important place for me is showing up and being present, just being present, because if you project where it’s going it only creates anxiety. If you replay where it was and what you’ve lost, it only creates anxiety and grief.’
She explained that ‘when you stay present, there is so much, and there’s still so much of him there. And it may not always be verbal, but it is beautiful given the givens.’
Bruce’s illness, frontotemporal dementia (FTD) does not cause memory loss at first, but rather attacks the parts of the brain in charge of language and personality.
Emma recently revealed that the ‘hardest decision’ she took while looking after him was moving him into a separate one-story house away from their primary residence.
He lives there with a full-time care team, while Emma brings their daughters Mabel and Evelyn to visit him ‘a lot,’ including for breakfast and dinner.
‘Bruce would want that for our daughters,’ said Emma. ‘He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.’
The couple made the revelation during a joint ABC special with Diane Sawyer entitled Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey.
Days after the broadcast aired, Emma posted to Instagram saying she had been criticized online for moving Bruce into a separate house.
‘It¿s hard to see somebody who was so vibrant and strong and so directed shift into this other parts of themself,’ said Demi on Oprah’s podcast; she and Bruce are pictured in 2018
She argued she had been judged ‘quickly and unfairly,’ saying viewers were split between ‘people with an opinion versus people with an actual experience.’
Meanwhile Demi showered praise on Heming during her Oprah interview, saying; ‘There is no roadmap for how to deal with this and obviously, being the ex-wife, even though our family is very connected, is an interesting position, and so much fell on Emma to really figure this whole thing out.’
Plugging Emma’s memoir, Moore said that ‘the most beautiful thing – and she talks about this in the book – was recognizing the importance for caregivers that they have to take care of themselves, and that if they don’t put that time into making sure that they’re okay, then they can’t show up for anyone else.’
Demi added that ‘I have so much compassion for Emma in this, being a young woman, there’s no way that anybody could have anticipated where this was gonna go, and I really think she’s done a masterful job.’
Bruce and Demi are pictured during their marriage arriving at the premiere of her 1996 film Striptease, with Demi having already shaved her head for her lead role in G.I. Jane
Bruce withdrew from Hollywood in 2022 after being diagnosed with the brain condition aphasia, which causes the patient’s language abilities to deteriorate.
In 2023, his family announced that his illness had ‘progressed’ and he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Bruce has been surrounded by his close-knit blended family, who have gathered around him in order to help him cope with his health struggles.
During the Diane Sawyer special, Emma explained: ‘Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him.’
She added: ‘We have a way of communicating with him that is just a different, a different way, but I’m grateful. I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.’
