Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis recently got candid about the beloved actor’s ongoing struggle with dementia.
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“Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him,” Heming Willis explained in the ABC special Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey. The special highlights the actor’s health battle and how his family, led by Heming Willis, has stepped up as his caregivers.
Heming Willis said her husband of 16 years can still recognize her.
“I feel he does, right? Like, he, I know he does. You know, when we are with him … he lights up, right?” Heming Willis told host Diane Sawyer. She added that he shares a bond with the couple’s two young daughters and Willis’ three adult daughters.”He’s holding our hands. We’re kissing him. We’re hugging him. He is reciprocating. You know, he is into it.”
“And so that’s all I need, you know?” she added. “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.”
In 2023, Willis’ family revealed that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a form of dementia that affects personality and can lead to behavioral changes, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The 70-year-old actor has struggled to communicate since his diagnosis, according to Heming Willis, who wrote a book about her family’s experience, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path.
Emma Heming Willis Recalls First Signs of Her Husband’s Condition
Emma confided in Sawyer that recalling Bruce’s initial diagnosis has been a difficult experience for her.
“It’s really gray for me where Bruce’s disease started to come in. He always loved taking the girls to school, and then those school runs just started to not happen as much, and I thought that is so weird,” she admitted. Emma wouldn’t say anything to her husband and opted to “just step in and do it” instead.
The actor’s wife, Emma, noticed signs of his health decline before his diagnosis, including changes in his personality and his skipping family events.
“For someone who is very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet. When the family would get together, he would kind of just melt a little bit,” Emma told Sawyer.
“It felt a little removed, very cold, not like Bruce, who was very warm and affectionate,” she added. “To [go] the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary.”
Bruce Willis’ Wife Emma Heming Willis Reveals ‘Hard Decision’ Amid Actor’s Dementia Battle
Emma Heming said she made the “hard decision” to move the actor into a separate home due to his dementia. “Bruce would want that for our daughters,” Heming explained of Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, on the special.
“He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs,” the 47-year-old added.
She explained that their children frequently spend time with Willis at his nearby second home. Heming often takes Mabel and Evelyn over for breakfast and dinner visits, ensuring they share meaningful moments together.
The Sixth Sense star, who shares daughters Rumer (37), Scout (34), and Tallulah (31) with ex-wife Demi Moore, now lives with the support of a dedicated full-time care team.
Heming’s memoir, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope and Yourself on the Caregiving Path,” debuts on Sept. 9. Meanwhile, the ABC News special Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.