Bruce Willis’ wife reveals the subtle symptoms she noticed before he was diagnosed with dementia
Bruce Willis' wife has recalled the worrying symptoms of dementia the 70-year-old had before his shock diagnosis.
In 2023, the former action star's family revealed he was living with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD).
FTD is an 'uncommon' type of dementia which impacts the lobes of the brain behind the forehead, which affects a person's behavior and language ability. Sadly, there is no cure for the disease, nor any way of slowing it down.
More than 55 million people are living with dementia worldwide, with that figure expected to multiply to 139 million by 2050, as per Alzheimer's Disease International.
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Now, Willis' wife of 16 years, Emma Heming Willis, has opened up about the star's 'alarming' first symptoms in a new TV interview.
Speaking to ABC News' Diane Sawyer, she said pinpointing when her husband's disease first presented is 'really gray,' but it started out with some unusual yet subtle routine changes.
What were Bruce Willis' first dementia symptoms?
Routine changes
"He would always love taking the girls to school. And then those school runs just started to not happen as much," she recalled, referring to their two daughters, Mabel Ray Willis, 13, and Evelyn Penn Willis, 11.
Rather than doing his usual beloved dad duties, Emma said he'd just 'say nothing.'
"For someone who was very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more more quiet and when the family would get together, he would kind of just melt a little bit," Emma continued.
She struggled to make sense of it, questioning whether the miscommunications might be linked to Bruce’s hearing loss in one ear after a stunt on the first Die Hard film.
Speech deterioration
The second 'haunting' symptom Emma noticed was the return of his childhood stutter. The star struggled with a speech impediment and could 'hardly talk' when he was younger, he'd previously revealed in a biography.
"I started noticing that Bruce's stutter did reappear. I definitely started noticing it rev up a little bit more," Emma recalled.
Personality on mute
The most worrying change, however, was his usually 'very warm and affectionate' demeanour slipping away.
Instead, he seemed 'removed' and 'very cold,' a change she described as 'alarming and scary.'
Marital issues
The pair also began experiencing 'marital issues' that had never been there previously.
When probing Willis about them and asking if he was 'okay', Emma says he would 'just dismiss it' and things got 'bumpy and very confusing.'
How is Bruce Willis doing now?
Elsewhere in the exclusive interview, Emma revealed that Willis is still mobile and in 'great health overall,' only it's his brain that's 'failing him.'
The family have also had to adapt to a new way of communicating with him as his 'language is going.' But at times, they get glimmers of who Bruce used to be, when the 'twinkle in his eye' briefly returns.
"Not days, but we get moments," Emma explained. "It's his laugh, right? He has such a hearty laugh. And sometimes you'll see that twinkle in his eye, or that smirk, and I just get transported."
She added: "And it's just hard to see, because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes. It's hard. But I'm grateful. I'm grateful that my husband is still very much here."
After becoming Willis' full-time carer, the model and actress was inspired to write a book about her family's experience, called The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path.
Speaking of transitioning into Willis's carer, she said: "Those early stages were deeply isolating. I struggled with a sense of powerlessness, feeling as if I had no control over what was happening to my family.
"At the same time, I was grappling with grief, the loss of the life I had known, all while raising our two young daughters."
But when the family went public with Willis' diagnosis in 2023, Emma says they were 'met with an outpouring of kindness and global support'.
Now, she wishes she had 'taken the leap of faith and asked for help sooner,' explaining: "Everything changed when I found the right information, resources, and community to lean on.
"I began to realize that, even in my new role as a care partner, I still had agency. And with that, I started to find joy, see beauty, and choose hope."
Topics: Bruce Willis, Dementia, Health, Celebrity
Ellie Kemp