Bruce Willis’s wife, Emma Heming Willis, is opening up about the actor’s nearly three-year battle with dementia.
The Die Hard star’s family announced his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a degenerative brain condition that impacts communication and behaviour, in February 2023.
“Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know,” Heming Willis told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in the ABC special Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey, a preview of which aired Tuesday on Good Morning America. “It’s just his brain that is failing him.”
“The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt,” Heming Willis, who has written a new book about her experience titled The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, continued. “And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a… different way.”
Elsewhere in the preview, Sawyer asked Heming Willis if there were days when she still sees glimpses of her husband’s old self.
“Not days, but we get moments,” she responded. “It’s his laugh, right? Like, he has such, like, a hearty laugh. And, you know, sometimes you’ll see that twinkle in his eye, or that smirk, and, you know, I just get, like, transported.”
She added: “And it’s just hard to see, because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes. It’s hard. But I’m grateful. I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.”
Revealing her book’s cover on Instagram in April, Heming Willis wrote: “Born from grief, shaped by love, and guided by purpose, this is the book I needed back when Bruce was first diagnosed and I was frozen with fear and uncertainty.
“This is the book I trust will help the next caregiver. It is filled with support, insight, and the hope needed to navigate this journey.
“This book is for all of us finding our way through the unknown with love, grit, and courage. You are not alone.”
Willis and Heming Willis have been married for 14 years. They share two children: Mabel Ray Willis, 13, and Evelyn Penn Willis, 11.
Willis has three older children from his previous marriage to The Substance star Demi Moore: Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31.
Rumer shared an update on her father’s condition in February, saying he was “doing great.”
She added: “We’re all so close, I think what’s so beautiful is the way that we rally around each other is so lovely because we really are a unit.”
Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. It will be available to stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
