As Bruce Willis's Dementia Worsens, Wife Emma Shares The "Hardest Decision" She Made For Her Husband

Bruce Willis, the Hollywood icon, who has delivered countless superhits like Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, and The Sixth Sense, is suffering from frontotemporal dementia. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, frontotemporal dementia impacts one's personality and may cause behavioural changes. 

Now, his wife Emma Heming Willis has opened up about the challenges her husband has been facing with the medical condition.

Emma Heming Willis recently appeared on a special ABC episode titled Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey. The British model and actress, in a conversation with host Diane Sawyer, revealed, "Bruce is in really great health overall. It's just his brain that is failing him. The language is going and we've learned to adapt. And we have a way of communicating with him which is just different."

Speaking about the "hardest" decision she had to take for Bruce Willis' well-being, Emma disclosed that it was moving her husband to a separate, one-story home where he could receive around-the-clock care. 

Emma added that Bruce Willis also responds to his daughters, indicating that he still feels a connection to them. 

"He's holding our hands. We're kissing him. We're hugging him. He's reciprocating. That's all I need. I don't need him to know that I'm his wife, and we were married on this day... I don't need any of that. I just wanna feel that I've a connection with him. And I do," said Emma. 

Bruce Willis shares two daughters - Mabel, 13 and Evelyn, 11 with Emma Heming Willis, whom he married in 2009. The actor is also the father to three older daughters - Tallulah, 31, Scout, 34 and Rumer, 37 with his ex-wife, actress Demi Moore. 

Emma, however, has only one lament. She misses talking to Bruce Willis like she used to before. 

"Just how he's doing, [if] he's okay, he feels okay. If there's anything that we could do to support him better. I would really love to know that. If he's scared. If he's ever worried. I just would love to be able to, just to have a conversation with him," she admitted. 

Bruce Willis' family shared his dementia diagnosis publicly in 2023. The family shared that he would be stepping away from acting, following a diagnosis of aphasia - a neurological condition that affects a person's ability to communicate.