In 2022, Bruce Willis took a break from acting after a four-decade-long career when he was diagnosed with aphasia. Since then, the Hollywood icon has largely stayed away from the limelight and has preferred to spend time with his family away from the public eye. Now, his wife Emma Heming Willis has shared a deeply emotional update on his ongoing health battle, revealing that the actor isn’t completely aware of what he’s dealing with, which she describes as both a curse and a blessing.
Bruce Willis’ wife Emma shares new health update
Emma Heming Willis, who has been married to the 70-year-old actor since 2009, opened up about her husband’s health when she came forward. chat with cam podcast.
He said, “I think they think this is their normal case. There’s a term, this neurological condition that also comes with FTD and other types of dementia, called anosognosia, where your brain can’t recognize what’s going on with it. Where people think it might be denial, where they don’t want to go to the doctor because they say, ‘I’m fine.’ Actually, it is anosognosia that comes into play. This is not a denial. It’s just that his mind is changing. This is a part of the disease. It’s blessing and its curse is that Bruce never took advantage of it. He never connected the dots that he had this disease. I’m really happy with it. I’m really glad he doesn’t know about it.”
He also shared that Die Hard stars still recognize their family members. The couple have two daughters, aged 11 and 13.
Emma Heming noted, “He’s still present in his body. When someone says to me, ‘Does Bruce still know who you are?’ Yes, he does, because he doesn’t have Alzheimer’s; He has FTD. They have a way of connecting with me, with our kids, it may not be the same way you connect with your loved one, but it’s still so beautiful and meaningful. This is completely different. You just learn to adapt.”
What do we know about Bruce Willis’ dementia battle?
Bruce Willis has largely remained out of the public eye since his frontotemporal dementia (FTD) diagnosis.
In 2022, Bruce’s family announced in 2022 that he had been diagnosed with aphasia. Aphasia is a language disorder caused by brain damage that affects a person’s ability to communicate. The family announced a year later in February 2023 that the diagnosis had changed to frontotemporal dementia, writing on social media: “Although it is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”
Last year, in an interview with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, Emma Heming Willis said that “Bruce is still very mobile. Bruce is actually in very good health, you know. It’s just his brain that’s failing him…The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt. And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different way.”
In the past, the actor Demi Moore, who was married to Bruce for 13 years from 1987 to 2000, and the pair’s three daughters, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Willis, have come forward to praise Emma Heming Willis for supporting her amid her health battle.