Bruce Willis' heartbreaking frontotemporal dementia (FTD) diagnosis has fans wishing him and his family the best. As more details come out about his progress, his wife Emma Heming Willis recently revealed that he has moved into a second home away from the family.
Bruce and Emma share daughters, Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, and Emma made what she called the "hardest decision" to move him into a home away from them. “Bruce would want that for our daughters,” she told Diane Sawyer on the ABC special Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey. “He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.”
Now, the Pulp Fiction star lives in a one-story home with a full-time care team as his frontotemporal dementia (FTD) progresses. Emma described the home as “filled with love, and warmth, and care, and laughter,” adding that Bruce’s friends continue to visit, bringing “life, and fun” into his days.
Despite the distance, she makes sure their daughters are part of that environment, bringing them over for breakfast and dinner, watching movies, or just connecting.
His shocking diagnosis
For Emma, hearing about his diagnosis came as a shock. “I was so panicked,” she admitted, recalling the moment she first heard the words she “couldn’t pronounce.”
Emma remembers feeling like she was “free-falling” while trying to process that her husband’s brain, not his body, was failing. She doesn’t believe Bruce fully understood what was happening at first. “I don’t think Bruce connected the dots,” she said.
Even as he loses the ability to speak, Bruce remains mobile and in generally good health. “It’s just his brain that is failing him,” Emma said, emphasizing how the family has adapted to communicate in new ways. She added, “But I’m grateful. I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.”
Emna took on the role of full-time caretaker and wrote a book about the experience. FTD, which affects about 50,000 to 60,000 Americans, gradually erodes the brain’s language, behavior, and personality centers, often beginning with subtle changes.
For Bruce, the first signs were “alarming” but quiet - a little less talkative, slightly withdrawn at family gatherings, with a stutter from childhood resurfacing. “For someone who is really talkative, very engaged, he would just kind of melt a little bit,” she said.
Emma's book, The Unexpected Journey, is set to be released on September 9, offering a closer look at the Willis family navigating love, care, and resilience in the face of a devastating diagnosis.