Bruce Willis’ wife has opened up about a heartbreaking decision she had to make for the dementia-stricken star’s care and the wellbeing of their young daughters.
The Die Hard actor, 70, was diagnosed in 2023 with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a form of dementia that causes a gradual decline in the areas of the brain linked to personality and language abilities.
Speaking with Diane Sawyer on the ABC special, Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey, Emma Heming Willis, 47, said her ‘hardest decision’ was moving the star to a second home away from her and their children Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11.
She said: ‘Bruce would want that for our daughters. He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.’
Willis lives in the one-story home with a full-time care team as his disease progresses.
Heming Willis said the couple’s daughters visit Willis ‘a lot’ and she will bring them to have breakfast and dinner with their father.
Bruce Willis ‘ wife has opened up about a heartbreaking decision she had to make for the dementia-stricken star’s care and the wellbeing of their young daughters
The actor was diagnosed in 2023 with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a form of dementia that causes a gradual decline in the areas of the brain linked to personality and language abilities; The couple seen in 2013
She added: ‘When we go over, either we’re outside, or we’re watching a movie…it’s just really about being able to be there, and connect with Bruce.
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‘It is a house that is filled with love, and warmth, and care, and laughter. And it’s been beautiful to see that, to see how many of Bruce’s friends continue to show up for him, and they bring in life, and fun.’
Elsewhere in the interview, Sawyer asked Heming Willis what she would ask her husband today if she could – with the former model responding: ‘how he’s doing, [if] he’s okay, he feels okay. If there’s anything that we could do to support him better.
‘I would really love to know that. If he’s scared. If he’s ever worried. I just would love to be able to just to have a conversation with him.’
Willis shares his adult daughters, Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31, with ex-wife Demi Moore, 62.
When a brain scan confirmed the FTD diagnosis, Heming Willis said, ‘I was so panicked,’ hearing the diagnosis she ‘couldn’t pronounce’ for the first time.
‘I remember hearing it and just not hearing anything else. It was like I was freefalling.’
When asked if she thought the Pulp Fiction star understood what was happening, Heming Willis said, ‘I don’t think Bruce connected the dots.’
Speaking with Diane Sawyer on the ABC special, Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey , Emma Heming Willis, 47, said her ‘hardest decision’ was moving the star to a second home away from her and their children Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11.
She said: ‘ Bruce would want that for our daughters. He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs’
Willis shares his adult daughters, Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31, with ex-wife Demi Moore, 62 – pictured with Heming-Willis in 2019
Of her husband’s current condition, she said, ‘Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him’
Heming Willis has transitioned into a fulltime caretaker for her husband and has written a book about her experience.
The Unexpected Journey will be released on September 9.
Of her husband’s current condition, she said, ‘Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him.’
As The Sixth Sense star loses his ability to speak, Emma said the family has ‘learned to adapt.’
‘We have a way of communicating with him that is just a different, a different way,’ adding, ‘But I’m grateful. I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.’
She also revealed the subtle yet ‘alarming’ first signs he was battling dementia.
She said: ‘For someone who is really talkative, very engaged, he was just a little more quiet, and when the family would get together he would kind of just melt a little bit.’
Willis is pictured with family on his 70th birthday earlier this year. His wife said while is still ‘mobile,’ his language abilities have suffered
He soon began losing words, and a stutter he dealt with as a child returned.
FTD eats away at the parts of the brain that control language, behavior and personality. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, patients don’t lose their memory immediately but instead undergo personality changes.
FTD accounts for about one in 20 dementia cases, adding up to roughly 50,000 to 60,000 Americans, compared to over 6million with Alzheimer’s.