‘A family disease’: Bruce Willis’ wife discusses actor’s dementia diagnosis
- Actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal lobar degeneration
- His wife says it is "hard to know" whether he is aware of his dementia.
- Heming Willis: "When they say that this is a family disease, it really is"
The family of actor Bruce Willis, seen here, said Wednesday that he would be “stepping away” from acting amid an aphasia diagnosis. (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)
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(NewsNation) — Emma Heming Willis says it is “hard to know” whether her husband Bruce Willis is aware of his dementia.
The Hollywood star was diagnosed with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTD), a rare type of dementia that doesn’t yet have a treatment or cure.
“What I’m learning is that dementia is hard. It’s hard on the person diagnosed. It’s also hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce or myself or our girls,” Heming Willis said on NBC’s “Today” show. “And when they say that this is a family disease, it really is.”
Heming Willis has two daughters with the 68-year-old actor. She came on the show for the beginning of FTD Awareness Week.
In March 2022, the Willis family released a statement saying he was retired from acting, citing a communication disorder called aphasia, which later progressed into FTD. The family announced that diagnosis this past March.
Hemming Willis told the “Today” show she is her husband’s “care partner” rather than his caretaker, discussing the emotional challenges of looking after a loved one with the diagnosis.
“It’s really important for me to look up from the grief and the sadness so that I can see what is happening around us. Bruce would want us to be in the joy,” she said.
