Emma Heming Willis is opening up about brain health and the effects of chronic conditions on family members. Emma was a speaker at the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement Forum in Vegas, where she opened up about her husband Bruce Willis' diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia and the difficult experience it was created for her family.
“On the day Bruce got his diagnosis, we left the doctor's office with a pamphlet and a hollow goodbye. No plan, no guidance, no hope, just shock,” she said on the stage.
“The future we imagined simply vanished, and I was left trying to hold my family together, raise our two young daughters, and care for the man I love while navigating a disease I barely understood.”
Emma was being honored for her advocacy for caregiving, a mission she took on following her husband's groundshaking diagnosis.
“I felt lost, isolated and scared,” she said. “What I needed in that moment at that appointment wasn't just medical information. I needed someone to look me in the eye and say, ‘This feels impossible right now, but you will find your footing. You will survive this and you will grow because of it.’
More details about Emma and Bruce's family
Emma and Bruce married in 2009 after dating for two years. They share two kids: Mabel Ray and Evelyn Penn, born in 2012 and 2014.
In various conversations and social media posts, Emma has shared that she's never shielded her daughters from Bruce's condition, and that he's still a present parent even though it may not be the most conventional of situations.
“What I learned from our therapist was that if children ask questions, they're ready to know the answer,” said Emma in an interview with Town & Country. “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."