Emma Heming Willis, 47, has hit back at criticism for how she’s handling her husband Bruce Willis’ dementia.
They’ve been married since 2009
Heming and Willis tied the knot in 2009, nine years after the Die Hard star’s divorce from Demi Moore. Willis, 70, shares two daughters with Heming and three daughters with Moore.
Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023.
Emma is his main caregiver
The family, which is quite close knit, have had their world changed since the actor’s dementia diagnosis.
Being Willis’ main caregiver, Emma had to make the difficult decision of moving Willis to a separate property to their family home.
She faced a lot of backlash because of this
Willis’ new home is located close to where Emma and their daughters live. After sharing her decision to have Willis live apart from the family, Emma faced a lot of backlash.
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But she insists that his new home is ‘filled with love, and warmth, and care, and laughter’.
She has addressed this before
Responding to the backlash in August, Emma said in an Instagram post, “What I knew is that by sharing some of our intimate information that we would see these two camps.”
“It would be people with an opinion versus people with an actual experience.”
She said many wouldn’t understand
“Nothing changes an opinion quite as powerfully as when you have an experience,” Emma added.
“Even if someone is closely familiar with dementia or the condition you are caring for, they aren’t in your home, so they don’t know how your person is behaving or your family dynamics.”
She further discussed the harsh words
Now, Emma has further touched on the criticism in a conversation with actress Yvette Nicole Brown, who is also a caregiver for her father who suffers from dementia.
The conversation was during a talk at this year’s End Well conference in Los Angeles.
Emma had a sharp response
Brown asked Emma how she feels about the negative takes on her caregiving from critics, to which Emma laughed and replied, “F**k ’em, as Bruce would say.”
Brown also shared her reaction to the backlash received by Emma’s decision for Willis to live separately.
She sympathized with Emma
The actress said, “I tell you, when I heard about the house thing, I wanted to throw elbows for you, honey.”
“Because the thing is, what people don’t understand who aren’t caregivers, is that every caregiver is different, especially if you’re dealing with dementia or alzheimer’s, it’s very unwieldy.”
“And we all are doing our best and making the best decisions for your family. So when they came for you, I wanted to come for them,” she added.
