Bruce Willis is now living in a care facility as his family continues to navigate the challenges of his dementia diagnosis, wife Emma Heming Willis revealed in an emotional new interview.
“It was one of the hardest decisions that I’ve had to make so far,” Heming Willis told Diane Sawyer during an ABC News special that aired Tuesday night. She explained that the 70-year-old actor has moved into a “second home” nearby where he can receive 24-hour professional care.
“But I knew first and foremost, Bruce would want that for our daughters, you know, he would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.”
The actor, best known for “Die Hard,” “Moonlighting,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “The Sixth Sense,” ended his Hollywood career in 2023 after his family disclosed he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Before that, he was diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder, when early symptoms emerged.
Heming Willis recalled the first subtle signs.
“He would always love taking the girls to school, and then those school runs just started to not happen as much,” she said. “I just thought, God, that is so weird because for someone who was very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet, and when the family would get together, he would kind of just melt a little bit.”
The couple married in 2009 after meeting in 2005 and share two daughters, now 11 and 13. Willis also has three adult daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore.
Heming Willis said she told her girls “pretty quickly” after their father’s diagnosis, stressing, “I never wanted them to think that he wasn’t paying attention to them.”
Despite his condition, she said Willis remains physically strong and still connects with loved ones.
“Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know, it’s just his brain that is failing him,” she told Sawyer. “I know he does [recognize us]. When we are with him, he lights up. He’s holding our hands, we’re kissing him, we’re hugging him, [and] he is reciprocating, you know, he is into it. And so that’s all I need.”
Heming Willis said their daughters spend regular time at the care home, which she described as “a house that is filled with love and warmth and care and laughter.” She also admitted that during the earliest stages of his illness, when she “didn’t understand what was happening,” she even questioned whether their relationship “doesn’t feel like a marriage anymore.”
Now, she is sharing her experience in an upcoming memoir, “The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path,” set for release Sept. 7. She has also become an outspoken advocate for caregivers.
“It doesn’t matter where we came from, who we’re married to, that level of sadness and grief and anger and the resentment and all of this, it is one common thread that we all share,” she said. “And I think that there is something so beautiful in that.”
The Willis family has been vocal about raising awareness of FTD. Tallulah Willis, the actor’s youngest daughter, said on “The Drew Barrymore Show” last year: “On one hand, it’s who we are as a family. But also, it’s really important for us to spread awareness about FTD… to help other people, to turn it around, to make something beautiful about it, that’s really special for us.”
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