Emma Heming Willis has opened up about taking care of her family after her husband and Hollywood star Bruce Willis got diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
The actor’s diagnosis was revealed in 2022
In March 2022, the Willis family shared that Bruce had been diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that affects the ability to communicate.
Less than a year later, his wife, Emma Heming Willis, revealed he was diagnosed with FTD.
She got candid about her family
In a candid conversation with Diane Sawyer titled Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey, Heming opened up about how her life as an author, activist, and mother has changed since her husband’s diagnosis.
“Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him,” she said in the talk that aired on Tuesday, August 26.
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He’s losing his language
“The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt,” Heming added, per ABC News, “And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different, a different way.”
Heming believes her husband recognizes her, telling Sawyer, “I know he does. You know, when we are with him… he lights up.”
Willis also still has a connection with his daughters
Heming added that Willis still has a noticeable connection with his five daughters, two of whom he shares with her. Willis also shares his three elder daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore.
“He’s holding our hands. We’re kissing him. We’re hugging him,” Heming said. “He is reciprocating. You know, he is into it.”
The author said she doesn’t need anything more
Heartbreakingly, Heming added, “And so that’s all I need, you know?”
“I don’t need him to know that I am his wife, and we were married on this day, and this is what it — I don’t need any of that. I just wanna feel that I have a connection with him. And I do.”
She opened up about the aftermath of the diagnosis
Although she was ‘so panicked’ when she learnt Bruce’s diagnosis, Heming told their daughters about it ‘pretty quickly’.
“I’ve always been very open with the girls. I never wanted them to think he wasn’t paying attention to them,” she said. “It was relief, like, ‘OK, now we get it, now we understand truly what’s happening.”
Heming had to isolate their family
The activist added that she began to isolate their family because she knew that noise could agitate Bruce. She had to stop hosting playdates and sleepovers for their two young daughters.
“I isolated our whole family, and that was by design… That was a hard time,” she said.
She also had to make ‘one of the hardest decisions’
Heming added that she also had to make ‘one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make’ for their daughters.
She moved her husband to another, one-story home where he could receive care around the clock, adding that she spends breakfast and dinner with him everyday.
They still experience moments where Bruce is himself
Heming explained that although parts of his personality have changed due to the illness, there are still ‘moments’ where Bruce is himself again.
“It’s his laugh, right? He has such a hearty laugh,” she said. “And sometimes you’ll see that twinkle in his eye, or that smirk. I just get transported.”
