Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, has revealed that the beloved actor is now living full-time in a separate home as his family navigates the challenges of his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.
The decision, she explained during the ABC special Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey – A Diane Sawyer Special, was one of the most painful she has ever faced.
“It was one of the hardest decisions that I’ve had to make so far,” Heming Willis, 47, told Sawyer, via The Independent. “But I knew, first and foremost, Bruce would want that for our daughters. He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.”
The second residence, a one-story house staffed with a dedicated care team, is close to the family’s primary home. Heming Willis and the couple’s daughters, Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, visit frequently for meals and family time, making sure Willis remains at the center of their daily lives. Willis, who shares three older daughters (Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31) with ex-wife Demi Moore, continues to be surrounded by his loved ones even as his health declines.
The Die Hard star first stepped away from acting in 2022 after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects communication. Less than a year later, his family shared that his condition had progressed to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a degenerative disease that impacts language, behavior, and personality. “For someone who is very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet,” Heming Willis recalled of the first subtle changes she noticed. “When the family would get together, he would kind of just melt a little bit. It felt a little removed, very cold, not like Bruce, who was very warm and affectionate. To go in the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary.”
“To leave there with no … with nothing, just nothing, with a diagnosis I couldn’t pronounce,” Heming Willis said. “I didn’t understand what it was. I was so panicked. And I just remember hearing it and just not hearing anything else. It was like I was free falling.”
Out of that devastation, however, came her decision to speak openly. Through her new book, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, Heming Willis hopes to offer guidance and solidarity to other families facing the same illness. “I wanted to throw out a lifeline,” she explained, “because no one should have to go through this alone.”