Ever since Bruce Willis was first diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in February 2023, his wife Emma Heming Willis has been leading the charge to offer insight into the condition, as she and her family navigate the struggles associated with the diagnosis.
From laying bare her emotions, through to raising awareness of the debilitating disease, Emma is no stranger to speaking candidly about the day to day reality of caring for someone with dementia.
However, as altruistic and devoted a wife as she may be, Emma revealed one crucial warning given to her by her husband’s neurologist – and it revolved around remembering to take care of herself too.
"Caregiving can be really harmful to your health," she recalled in a new interview with NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas. "I didn’t know that, and I was grateful, yet alarmed, that his neurologist shared that with me, and that was a call for me to start taking care of myself, not just for Bruce but for our two young daughters."
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Prior to his dementia diagnosis, one of the first signs of his condition was a return of the stutter he previously had suffered from as a child. This led to doctors initially believing he was suffering from aphasia, a language disorder resulting from damage to the brain's language centers, most commonly caused by a stroke, which affects a person's ability to speak, understand, read, and write.
Reflecting on the shock of the updated diagnosis, Emma revealed: "Bruce had a severe stutter when he was a child that he held onto, actually, his life, but was able to kind of get a handle on it, I think, in his adult years. Then I started seeing that it started coming back. Never in my wildest dreams would I think that was now becoming a symptom of FTD."
While Emma appears to have taken the condition in her stride, the news of Willis’ diagnosis has proved to be particularly gruelling for the couple’s two daughters, Mabel, 13 and Evelyn, 11, who have watched their father deteriorate in a matter of months.
In a discussion with Vogue earlier this year, Emma admitted that her daughters had been 'grieving' for their father, and 'missed' the man he used to be prior to his illness.
"They miss their dad so much,” she told the publication. “He’s missing important milestones. That’s tough for them. But kids are resilient. [Although] I used to hate hearing that because people didn’t understand what we were walking through. I don’t know if my kids will ever bounce back. But they’re learning, and so am I."
Topics: Bruce Willis, Dementia, Health, Mental Health
Phoebe Tonks