Bruce Willis’ cognitive abilities are deteriorating more than three years after the legendary actor’s diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia, his wife Emma Heming Willis has revealed.
The 49-year-old wife of the Die Hard star spoke candidly during an interview with Diana Sawyer for a TV special titled Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey, which aired on Tuesday.
She said that while the 70-year-old remains “really great health overall” and is “still very mobile”, his brain disorder has begun to take hold of his daily life.
“It’s just his brain that is failing him. The language is going,” Heming Willis said.
“We’ve learned to adapt and we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different way.”
Willis was first diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a language impairment, in March 2022.
By 2023, the diagnosis progressed to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which forced him to step away from his successful Hollywood career.
Heming Willis recalled that she first noticed something was wrong when her normally charismatic husband started to withdraw from social life.
“For someone who was very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet, and when the family would get together he would kind of just melt,” she said.
His childhood stutter resurfaced, words slipped away, and he appeared less engaged with those around him.
“He felt very cold, not like Bruce, who was very warm and affectionate, to the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary,” she said.
Eventually, a brain scan confirmed the FTD diagnosis, sometimes referred to as the “black belt of dementias”, which attacks the front and sides of the brain, slowly stripping a person of language and their connection to others.
There is currently no cure.
“To leave there (the hospital) with nothing, just nothing, with a diagnosis I couldn’t pronounce, I didn’t know what it was… I was so panicked,” Heming Willis recalled.
The mother-of-two, who is also the actor’s primary caregiver, has since written a book titled The Unexpected Journey to help others facing similar challenges and to raise awareness about the disease.
On social media, she explained that her mission is to “shine a light on the 63 million caregivers in the US, 11 million of whom are caring for someone with dementia”.
“So this moment isn’t just about myself or Bruce, it is much bigger than that,” she said.
“It’s about raising the voices of caregivers, breaking the stigma around dementia, and shining a light on what millions of families face every day, often with little to no support.”
In Australia, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates one in 10 people are informal carers, with 1.6 million caring for someone with dementia- most without government support.
During the ABC interview, Diana Sawyer asked Heming Willis if there was one thing she wished she could ask her husband of 12 years.
Emma paused as tears started to well in her eyes.
“Just how he’s doing, if he’s okay, if he feels okay, if there’s anything that we can do to support him better, I would really love to know that. If he’s scared, or if he’s ever worried, I just… I would love to be able to have a conversation with him,” she said.
When asked to finish the sentence, “Love is…”, Heming Willis wiped her eyes and replied: “Love is grabbing a tissue.
“Love is beautiful, it’s grand, it’s unconditional.”