Why Bruce Willis’ Wife Doesn’t ‘Sugarcoat’ His Dementia for Their Kids

Published: October 31, 2024

Why Bruce Willis’ Wife Doesn’t ‘Sugarcoat’ His Dementia for Their Kids

Movieguide® Contributor

Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, recently opened up about how she addresses her husband’s serious illness with their young daughters.

“I’m much better than I was when we 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,” the mom of Mabel, 12, and Evelyn, 10, 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.”

“I’ve never tried to sugarcoat anything for them,” she continued. “They’ve grown up with Bruce declining over the years. I’m not trying to shield them from it.”

Heming Willis got advice from a therapist who told her that if her kids ask questions, then they’re ready to know the truth.

“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,” she said. “There is no cure. 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.”

Bruce Willis is now largely “incommunicative” as his frontotemporal dementia progresses, according to a friend…

READ MORE: BRUCE WILLIS ‘NOT TOTALLY VERBAL’ BUT ‘STILL BRUCE,’ FRIEND SAYS

Heming Willis had to completely reimagine her life with Bruce after he began to show signs of dementia in 2022 when the way he talked began to change. He wasn’t officially diagnosed until 2023.

Heming Willis said, “Bruce has always had a stutter, but he has been good at covering it up. As his language started changing, it [seemed like it] was just a part of a stutter, it was just Bruce. Never in a million years would I think it would be a form of dementia for someone so young.”

“We had so many plans, so many beautiful things we wanted to do with our girls, so many things that we wanted to experience together. You just rip that page out completely, and then how do you rewrite the story? I’m learning how to take some control back,” she said.

“It might not be the most beautiful story I could have thought of, but there are cracks of light,” she added.

She told Town & Country that learning his diagnosis was critical to getting the information she needed to tell her kids.

“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,” she said.

In an update to TODAY last month, Tallulah Willis, one of Bruce’s adult daughters from his previous marriage, said that Bruce is “stable.”

“There’s painful days, but there’s so much love,” she said. “It’s really shown me to not take any moment for granted, and I really do think that we’d be best friends,” she added. “I think he’s very proud of me. You have to be in the moment. You have to be present.”