The Hollywood actor has retired due to a serious illness. Now, Emma Heming has shared a rare family video featuring her husband. In the footage, Bruce is seen with their youngest daughter, Evelyn, during a walk in Manhattan. He is carrying the girl on his shoulders. At one point, Willis shows off his acting skills, growling menacingly and exclaiming, “I’m not going to bite you on the leg!” The little girl giggles, pressing her hands to her dad’s cheeks.
The video was taken around 2019, three years before Willis was diagnosed with a brain disorder, aphasia, which later developed into frontotemporal dementia. “The best spot in the house,” Emma wrote.
The 46-year-old model’s post was appreciated by the actor’s 33-year-old daughter, Scout, who shared emojis with tears of joy. Another daughter, 30-year-old Tallulah, also reacted to the post, commenting, “With love.” Bruce, also known for his role as “the tough nut,” has a 36-year-old daughter, Rumer, from his first marriage to Demi Moore. The couple divorced in 2000 but maintained a warm friendship. Demi gets along well with Bruce’s second wife, whom he married in 2009. Bruce and Emma have two young daughters together: 12-year-old Mabel and 10-year-old Evelyn.
After Bruce’s dementia diagnosis, his family has rallied around him. Demi and the daughters often visit him at his home with Emma. They celebrate holidays together and support one another. Emma has spoken about how the girls are processing their father’s illness.
“I’ve never tried to sugarcoat the situation for them,” she said. “They’ve grown up seeing Bruce decline over the years. I don’t try to shield them from it. Our therapist told me that if the kids ask questions, it means they’re ready for the answer. If we saw Bruce struggling, I’d talk to the kids so they could understand. But this is a chronic, progressive, and incurable disease. There’s no cure. Of course, I don’t like talking to them about this side of things, and they don’t really ask. They know Dad isn’t going to get better.”
Emma is preparing to release a book that she co-wrote with author Michelle Levy Bender. The book, which will be published in 2025, will focus on caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease, sharing her own fears and experiences. “I decided to write this book when we learned about the diagnosis,” Emma shared. “I wanted to hear from someone else, something like, ‘I know this is horrible and really hard, but you’re going to be okay.’”
