I happen to like this guy and I’m saddened to hear of his dementia diagnosis. What a crappy thing for him and his family. 
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He has dementia? I haven’t read the entire story but I thought it was aphasia, I have a good friend with it from a stroke, she has no dementia. At all.
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It depends. My Dad has expressive aphasia as a result of a stroke. He understands everything, but he has difficulty saying what he means to say.
Bruce Willis’ aphasia may indicate dementia. Impossible to know with the information provided by his family.
“Primary progressive aphasia is a type of frontotemporal dementia, a cluster of related disorders that results from the degeneration of the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain, which include brain tissue involved in speech and language.”
Primary progressive aphasia - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic.
Sad to hear this.
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I just heard this on my way home from lunch today. I really like Bruce Willis as an actor and I was so sorry to hear about his diagnosis.
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Very sad. He is only 67.
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It’s so sad. But he is so fortunate to have an incredibly supportive family.
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I read that his cognitive abilities have been affected. 
He’s about my husband’s age. So tragic.
I had the opportunity to meet him pre pandemic at my kids college. He was on campus for a drama event (his daughter is an alum).
We happened to be parking our car in a lot as he got out of a limo. I hadn’t connected who it was until he noticed our plates and asked “what part of NJ are you from”? We exchanged pleasantries, he mentioned his NJ roots, shared impressions of the school and he couldn’t have been nicer. He made a self deprecating comment about being a second rate actor who sent his daughter to a first rate school and that was why he liked to return and give back. Given he was a favorite of mine I was blown away by his accessibility, humility and big but “normal” personality.
Entire interaction took maybe 3 minutes and made a big impression. I am sure he has had tens of thousands of these discussions yet his sincerity made you feel like he was truly engaged. He obviously understood that given his fame being a good guy made other people happy and amazingly seemed to make him just as happy.
Total gentleman and class act!!
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Woody Durham, the longtime sports announcer for the UNC Tar Heels, had aphasia before his death about 5 years ago. I don’t think it was accompanied with dementia. Pretty ironic diagnosis for “The Voice Of The Tar Heels.”
BTW, his son Wes did the announcing for GA Tech for many years.
I wish Bruce the best dealing with this.
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I used the term dementia as my best friend is a hospice nurse and she said that if she has a patient with “aphasia” the general consensus among the staff at her place of business is that is treated as a form of dementia. True, that many stroke patients do not exhibit dementia signs, but according to her many of those diagnosed with aphasia do and they treat it as such (specific things like speaking in a softer tone of voice, using language that a young child might understand, not startling them, and more).
As was mentioned above by @kelsmom I’m grateful he has an incredibly supportive and tight knit family, who will ensure he is well taken care of.
I might be extra sensitive about this.
One of my very best friends is a stroke survivor, who has aphasia and 100% does not have dementia.
She is often the subject of discrimination and ostracized because of her condition. I am very proud of how she has handled her life after a devastating stroke. But all of her mental acuity and memory is intact.
Since Bruce Willis’s family has chosen to say that he has aphasia, I hope that we can be open minded and not make conclusions about what might or might not be going on.
I’m kinda upset to be honest because I know what my friend has had to overcome.
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That’s understandable - 
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I’ve treated aphasia patients and it’s not dementia.
Specifically, with aphasia, there is a lot of frustration because the patient sometimes doesn’t realize that what they are saying doesn’t appear to make sense to his/her listeners.
With dementia, other physical functions begin to deteriorate and weaken like eating/drinking and purposeful movement or actions.
With Aphasia, it’s a language/cognition thing. You can eat, drink, move your body and extremities purposefully, but putting together a sentence is difficult.
You do have trouble interpreting sentences when spoken to and your responses are transposed, or are unrelated to the topic; some patients can have difficulties with writing and reading. It depends on the area of the brain that was affected during the stroke or accident/ traumatic brain injury.
ETA: His neurologist team will refer and provide therapeutic supportive help for Willis and his family. There are some individuals who can recover. Not at full strength, but improvements do show with lots of therapy.
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With aphasia is there always a preceding event that brought it on - like a stroke or TIA??? I’m just curious.
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Stroke is the number one cause of aphasia.
HOWEVER, it is not the only cause. Other causes of aphasia are:
Traumatic brain injury
Brain tumor
Infection such as meningitis or encephalitis
Various syndromes such as frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimers
*Progressive neurogenerative diseases such as progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration. Parkinson’s disease does not usually cause aphasia.
Causes of temporary aphasia:
TIA
Seizures
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Dementia syndromes can cause aphasia.
My father has expressive aphasia from a stroke, and from time to time, people mistake this for dementia even though he understands everything and does not have dementia. It has caused him understandable distress as well.
The fact remains that even though stroke is the number one cause of aphasia, it simply is not the only one.
Yet point taken, we do not have the information to state the cause of Bruce Willis’ aphasia as his family made a point of not revealing that, which must be respected.
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I’m a speech pathologist. Regardless of the etiology, losing ones ability to communicate is very very difficult.
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My Dad has improved, but when he gets flustered, it gets worse, and then he gets more flustered and sometimes gives up. Sometimes he will have trouble, and then when he is ready to give up, he’ll say-clear as a bell-“Oh never mind, I can’t say it.”
He will get close to what he’s trying to say, but just not quite right. I’ve gotten to where I can often figure it out. One day, he was saying he thought he’d left his walkie talkie in the dining room. I quickly figured out he meant his telephone (well, not that hard). Other times it’s like a bad stutter and he never can close in on the word he’s looking for.
What really upsets him is when doctors or others will pose all of their questions to me or will look at me instead of him when they are imparting information. That really hurts his feelings, since he can understand everything and is perfectly capable of making his own medical and life decisions.
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Some of these folks benefit for augmentative communication things.