Bruce Willis’ Wife Explains Why They Shared His Diagnosis: ‘I Could Breathe’ (2024)

Published: May 10, 2024

Bruce Willis’ Wife Explains Why They Shared His Diagnosis: ‘I Could Breathe’

By Movieguide® Contributor

Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis has opened up about how the actor’s frontotemporal dementia diagnosis is affecting their family and why they decided to share the news publicly.

“I could breathe, you know, I could really exhale and sort of just feel this weight sort of lift from my shoulders, but everything changed for the better once we were able to disclose his diagnosis,” she said of when they decided to share his diagnosis. “I was able to see the support that I so desperately needed for my husband, for our whole family.”

John Hopkins Medicine explains that “Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a common cause of dementia, is a group of disorders that occur when nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain are lost. This causes the lobes to shrink. FTD can affect behavior, personality, language, and movement.”

Willis was first diagnosed with aphasia in 2022, but the diagnosis progressed.

Heming Willis explained how she believed sharing his diagnosis with others was important.

“There were so many reasons to go public but first and foremost, it had been so isolating and you know, I was trying to keep it quiet and really, it was about our daughters and…I never wanted them to think that this was some kind of family secret that we had to keep,” Heming Willis told the audience at the AFTD 2024 Education Conference. “I felt like it was very important for us to come out and say what it was.”

Despite his diagnosis, Heming Willis has continued to support and show her love for her husband. For Willis’ birthday several weeks ago, Emma posted a photo of the actor with one of their daughters.

“Just like you, we simply adore him. What you might not know, but maybe you could imagine, that being wrapped in his arms is the safest place in this whole wide world. He’s a true gentle man. With so much love to give and share. That’s what I get to see, his true core. I can tell you, it’s so pure and ever so good. Happy Birthday my love. You are the gift that keeps giving,” she wrote.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emma Heming Willis (@emmahemingwillis)

Movieguide® previously reported:

Emma Heming Willis is confronting clickbait claims that say her husband, Bruce Willis, has “no more joy,” as he continues to battle Frontotemporal dementia.

“The headline basically says there is no more joy in my husband. Now, I can just tell you, that is far from the truth,” Heming Willissaidin an Instagram video. “I need society – and whoever’s writing these stupid headlines – to stop scaring people. Stop scaring people to think that once they get a diagnosis of some kind of neurocognitive disease that that’s it. ‘It’s over. Let’s pack it up. We’re — Nothing else to see here. We’re done.’ No.”

While dealing with her husband’s diagnosis is a difficult experience, she explained that it’s been filled with many good things.

“There is grief and sadness. There’s all of that. But you start a new chapter,” shesaid. “It’s filled with love, it’s filled with connection, it’s filled with joy, it’s filled with happiness.”