Emma Heming who is the wife of Bruce Willis has opened up about the Hollywood actor’s battle with frontotemporal dementia in a moving interview
Hollywood star Bruce Willis’s brain is “failing him” and his “language is going”.
The tragic actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia two years ago. Now wife Emma Heming Willis admitted it is “alarming” that he’s “more quiet” compared to the “warm and very affectionate” personality he had before.
She revealed: “Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. “It’s just his brain that is failing him. The language is going.
“We’ve learned to adapt and we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different way. “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 just melt a little bit.
“He felt a little removed, a little cold, not like Bruce who was very warm and very affectionate. To go the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary.”
It was announced in 2022 that the Die Hard movie great was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, a brain disorder that causes difficulty with language.
A year later his family said that he medics discovered he had frontotemporal dementia. Emma, 47, and Bruce, 70, married in 2009 and have two daughters together.
She has penned a book about caring for her husband called Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope and Yourself on the Caregiving Path which goes on sale on September 9.
In a new interview in the States with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Emma said there are still times when she sees glimpses of Bruce’s former self.
She added: “We still get those days. Not days, but moments. It’s his laugh. He has such a hearty laugh. And sometimes you’ll get that twinkle in his eye or that spark. And I just get transported.
“It’s just hard to see because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes.”
The former model has transitioned into a fulltime caretaker for her husband and has written a book about her experience.
The Unexpected Journey will be released on September 9.
Of her husband’s current condition, she said, Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him.’
As The Sixth Sense star looses his ability to speak, Emma said the family has ‘learned to adapt.’
‘We have a way of communicating with him that is just a different, a different way,’ adding, ‘But I’m grateful. I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.’
