{"id":7801,"date":"2025-09-10T17:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/7801\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T17:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:44:07","slug":"bruce-willis-wife-emma-thought-die-hard-was-to-blame-for-early-dementia-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/7801\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Willis\u2019 Wife Emma Thought \u2018Die Hard\u2019 Was to Blame for Early Dementia Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Heming Willis<\/a> knew there was something not right with her husband Bruce Willis<\/a> long before he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023, but assumed it was related to a hearing problem stemming from the actor\u2019s role in Die Hard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Fox News Digital<\/a> about the release of her new book, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, Emma revealed how her husband lost a \u201chuge percentage of his hearing\u201d while filming the classic 1988 action movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Bruce was shooting the first Die Hard, he shot a gun underneath a table multiple times, and they didn\u2019t have him wear any kind of ear protection,\u201d she told the outlet. \u201cThat took out a huge percentage of his hearing. And over time, for all of us as we age, our hearing starts to go a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I thought was happening,\u201d she continued, noting that she put their communication issues down to Bruce \u201cnot hearing\u201d her properly.<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/p>\n

Bruce Willis in Die Hard<\/p>\n

TM & Copyright (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp.<\/p>\n

According to Fox News Digital, in the book, Emma writes that Bruce\u2019s hearing problems never posed an issue when they first got together; the couple married in 2009. However, she noticed Bruce starting to \u201ccheck out\u201d during family dinners, which she initially thought was him letting his three older daughters (whom he shares with ex-wife Demi Moore<\/a>) \u201cyak it up\u201d and have \u201cgirl talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI assumed his hearing loss made it easier for him to melt into his seat with his hands clasped gently on his lap,\u201d\u00a0Emma writes in the book, which details her experiences as Bruce\u2019s wife and caregiver.<\/p>\n

In addition to the hearing loss, Emma thought the Armageddon<\/a> actor\u2019s increasing problems could have been related to a severe childhood stutter<\/a>. The former model noted how Bruce \u201cfigured out how to work with that stutter\u201d in college and found ways to manage it in his day-to-day life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for me, some of the first signs were noticing that his stutter was coming back,\u201d she told Fox News Digital. \u201cAnd \u2026 our relationship just felt very different. It all felt very different. Our conversations and our connection just felt off. It was really hard for me to understand why or what was happening to be able to put my finger on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite doctors not spotting any health concerns and Bruce not \u201cflagging\u201d any changes, Emma couldn\u2019t shake the feeling that something more was going on and eventually approached a doctor about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s so important for other caregivers as well. We know our person better than anybody. It\u2019s important for us that we know it\u2019s okay, and we should feel it\u2019s empowering to go to our loved one\u2019s doctor and say, \u2018Something is not right, and I really need you to listen to me. Hear me,’\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cI never realized, or would\u2019ve ever thought, or have known, that this sort of lack of empathy\u00a0was a symptom of young dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce\u2019s family first announced his aphasia diagnosis in 2022 before revealing the FTD diagnosis almost a year later. Since then, Emma has become an advocate for talking about the disease, offering help and guidance to others going through the same situation.<\/p>\n

Speaking on her current relationship with Bruce, with whom she shares two daughters, Emma said, \u201cOur lives are not over. Even with the diagnosis, the person is still human. There is still so much joy and so much laughter that we share with Bruce. We\u2019re just in a different phase, a different chapter of our lives with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the latest entertainment news on TV Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Heming Willis knew there was something not right with her husband Bruce Willis long before he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6425,458,6424,146,9020,9023,9022,9021,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-7801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-bruce-willis","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-emma-heming-willis","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fox-news-digital","13":"tag-frontotemporal-dementia","14":"tag-hearing-problem","15":"tag-hearing-problems","16":"tag-il","17":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}