Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming, has been straightforward with their daughters, Mabel, 12, and Evelyn, 10, about the actor’s frontotemporal dementia.
“This disease is misdiagnosed, it’s missed, it’s misunderstood, so finally getting to a diagnosis was key so that I could learn what frontotemporal dementia is and I could educate our children,” the model shared in a new interview.
“I’ve never tried to sugarcoat anything for them,” Heming, 46, told Town & Country. “They’ve grown up with Bruce declining over the years. I’m not trying to shield them from it.”
The mom-of-two explained “it’s hard” to say when exactly “Bruce ended” and the “disease started to take over,” as a year prior to the 2023 dementia diagnosis, “we had a loose diagnosis of aphasia, which is a symptom of a disease but is not the disease.”
“What I learned from our therapist was that if children ask questions, they’re ready to know the answer. If we could see that Bruce was struggling, I would address it with the kids so they could understand, but this disease is chronic, progressive, and terminal. There is no cure,” the brunette beauty stated. “Obviously, I don’t like to speak about the terminal side of this with them, nor have they asked. They know that Daddy’s not going to get better.”
The lack of treatments for the disease is one of the reasons Heming has been raising awareness.
“I’m not going to allow FTD to take our whole family down,” she declared. “Bruce wouldn’t want that. They’re going to see me fight for our family, have some hope, and help the next family out there.”
Heming also clarified that she’s on great terms with the Die Hard star’s ex-wife, Demi Moore, 61, and the three adult daughters he shares with the actress: Rumer, 36, Scout, 33, and Tallulah, 30.
“The family respects the way I’m looking after him; they really support me. If I need to vent, if I need to cry, if I need to rage — because all of that can happen and it’s okay to have those feelings — they are always there to listen,” she gushed. “I’m so thankful that we are this blended family. They’re very supportive, very loving, and very helpful, and a lot of people don’t have that.”
The loved ones put out a joint statement in 2022 to announce the father-of-five’s aphasia diagnosis and reveal he was retiring from acting.
Despite the hardships, Heming insisted she’s doing “much better” these days compared to when the brood first “received the FTD diagnosis.”
“I’m not saying it’s any easier, but I’ve had to get used to what’s happening so that I can be grounded in what is, so that I can support our children,” she said. “I’m trying to find that balance between the grief and the sadness that I feel, which can just crack open at any given moment, and finding joy.”
