Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, provides new health update: “It’s just his brain that is failing him”
Emma Heming Willis has spoken about her husband, Bruce Willis‘, battle with frontotemporal dementia and stated that “his brain is failing him”.
Willis spoke about the actor’s health struggles during an interview with Diane Sawyer in an ABC special, which aired on August 26th. The Die Hard star received his diagnosis in 2023 and has since withdrawn from public life.
“Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him,” Heming Willis shared with Sawyer. She continued: “The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt.”
Heming Willis also explained, “We have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different, a different way”.
She then expressed her belief that Willis is able to recognise her, stating, “I know he does. You know, when we are with him… he lights up.”
Heming Willis then revealed that Willis still has a strong connection to his five children, and heartwarmingly noted, “I don’t need him to know that I am his wife, and we were married on this day, and this is what it — I don’t need any of that. I just wanna feel that I have a connection with him. And I do.”
However, as a result of his condition, Willis’ personality changed during the early days before he was diagnosed. She explained: “For someone who is very talkative and very engaged he was a little more quiet, and when the family would get together, he’d just melt a little bit.”
It also caused him issues at work before he retired, as his childhood stutter returned and he began “missing lines and cues and sometimes seeming confused, and no one knew why”.
Heming Willis has since moved Willis to a separate property where he receives round-the-clock care from professionals, which she said is “one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make”. The couple have breakfast and dinner together each day.
On a positive note, Heming Willis said there are times when her husband shows glimpses of a former self, telling Sawyer, “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.”
Heming Willis has detailed her story of being a carer to Willis in the new book, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, which is set for release on September 11th, 2025.
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