Bruce Willis' wife, Emma Heming, is sharing heartbreaking new details about her husband's dementia diagnosis.
Back in 2022, Willis was diagnosed with a condition known as aphasia, which is a language disorder. The condition had progressed enough to force the award-winning actor to retire.
The following year, Willis' family publicly announced that his condition had progressed even further and that he had been given a more specific diagnosis. He had frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and it was untreatable.
Despite the major impact the condition has had on his life, Heming says that her husband is not aware of the diagnosis.
“I think that’s the blessing and the curse of this, Bruce never tapped in — he never connected the dots that he has this disease, and I’m really happy about that, that he doesn’t know about it,” she revealed.
Willis, who is 70 years old, has five daughters from two marriages. With actress Demi Moore, he shares three adult daughters. They include 37-year-old Rumer, 34-year-old Scout, and 31-year-old Tallulah.
With his current wife, Heming, Willis has two daughters, 13-year-old Mabel and 11-year-old Evelyn.
All of Willis' children are aware of his diagnosis, though they may handle it in different ways.
“You just learn how to adapt and meet them where they are at,” she said.
Heming revealed that throughout her 18-year marriage to Willis, they at times experienced communication problems. Eventually, she began to wonder if there was a more concerning issue hiding beneath the surface. Looking back now, she's not sure exactly when the dementia began to set in.
"It’s really hard to know when Bruce’s disease started and where he started to end," she said.
It wasn't until her husband's diagnosis was revealed that the 47-year-old started to get some clarity.
“I mean, it...I don’t really have a clear answer on that, and I don’t think I ever will. And I know a lot of other couples that have gone through this. It’s kind of that same sort of trajectory, like you think your marriage is falling apart, you consider divorce, and then you land on... finally a diagnosis where everything starts to kind of make sense," she said.
