Bruce Willis’s wife has made an emotional plea after the ailing former Hollywood legend was photographed out and about in Los Angeles at the weekend.

Model Emma Heming Willis posted a video to her Instagram on Saturday (US time), pleading with paparazzi to give Willis “his space” after he made a rare public appearance with a group of friends for coffee in Santa Monica last week.

Willis’s family revealed last month that the Die Hard star, who will turn 68 later in March, had been diagnosed with dementia.

“I’m just seeing headlines,” an emotional Heming Willis said in her film, shot on Saturday while still in her pyjamas.

“There’s a video of my husband out getting some coffee with some friends that did a stand-up job with protecting him.”

She had to stop to collect herself at times during the video.

“It’s clear that there’s still a lot of education that needs to be put forth. This one is going out to the photographers and the video people that are trying to get those exclusives of my husband out and about: Just keep your space. I know this is your job, but maybe just keep your space,” she said.

“For the video people, please don’t be yelling at my husband asking him how he’s doing or whatever — the woohoo-ing and the yippee ki yays … just don’t do it. OK? Give him his space. Allow for our family or whoever’s with him that day to be able to get him from point A to point B safely.

“That’s my PSA.”

Heming Willis, 45, has two young daughters with the Pulp Fiction actor. He also has three older daughters from his marriage to fellow actor Demi Moore.

Tallulah Willis, the youngest of Willis’s daughters with Moore, was among those to leave supportive comments on her stepmother’s Instagram post.

“I love you so much. I see you,” she wrote.

Willis’s family confirmed his diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia during February.

It came just under a year after they revealed his immediate retirement from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia. It causes loss of the ability to understand or express speech.

“While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” Heming Willis wrote on Instagram last month in a post signed “Ladies of Willis/Moore”.

“FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone.”

The statement was also posted on the website for The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, as well as on Moore’s own Instagram.

FTD is often diagnosed at a younger age than other forms of dementia. Symptoms can include personality changes, speech difficulty and motor impairment.

Heming Willis and the actor have been married since 2009. He also remains close to Moore.

Over a four-decade career, Willis’s movies had earned more than $US5 billion ($7.2 billion) at the worldwide box office.

He achieved initial fame for the 1980s comedy-drama TV series Moonlighting before he became the tough guy, action hero who shouted “Yippee Ki Yay” in five Die Hard films, and winning acclaim for roles in Pulp Fiction and The Sixth Sense.

In recent years, the prolific actor had primarily featured in direct-to-video thrillers.