Bruce Willis’ wife has spoken about his battle with frontotemporal dementia, three years on from the star retiring from acting due to aphasia (a condition that affects the ability to communicate), and two years on from his dementia diagnosis.
Emma Heming Willis, who has been married to the Die Hard star since 2009, spoke to ABC News (via Variety) about how the former action star is coping day to day with his condition. “Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know,” she said. “It’s just his brain that is failing him… The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt. And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a… different way”.
When asked how she initially knew something was different about her husband, Heming Willis explained it was a change in his social demeanour that first alarmed her. “When the family would get together, he would kind of just melt a little bit,” she explained. “He felt a little removed, very cold. Not like Bruce, who is very warm and affectionate. To go in the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary”.
Discussing their life today, she said there are occasional snapshots where they see the old version of him. “Not days, but we get moments. 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. And it’s just hard to see, because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes”.
Bruce Willis’ friends and family have spoken in recent months about the Pulp Fiction legend’s condition, with long-time friend Don Johnson describing it as “a struggle” in an interview in March. Demi Moore, who was married to Willis from 1987 to 2000, said in February that the pair remain close, saying: “We will always be a family, just in a different form”.
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