Emma Heming Willis is spreading awareness about her husband Bruce Willis’s frontotemporal dementia this week, including the “beautiful thing” her daughters Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, 9, are learning from their dad’s diagnosis.
As part of World Frontotemporal Dementia Awareness Week, Heming Willis sat down with TODAY’s Hoda Kotb to share an update about Willis’s diagnosis. “Dementia is hard,” she said. “It’s hard on the person diagnosed, it’s also hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our girls. When they say this is a family disease, it really is.”
Bruce Willis’ daughters honor their father's Hollywood legacy with a sweet day out. https://t.co/YA64paYINd
— SheKnows (@SheKnows) June 27, 2023
Although it is hard, the Make Time Wellness founder is looking at the positives. She shared that Willis is teaching Mabel and Evelyn “love, patience, and resilience.” She added, “It’s teaching them so much and how to care and love, and it’s really a beautiful thing amongst the sadness.”
Bruce Willis’s Diagnosis
The Die Hard star was diagnosed with aphasia last year, which his family shared in a touching post in March 2022. “Our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” they said in a statement. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
In Feb. 2023, the family released a statement through The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD), announcing that Willis’s condition had advanced. “FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone,” the family wrote. “For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia, and because getting the diagnosis can take years, FTD is likely much more prevalent than we know. Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead. As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.”
Emma Heming Willis Is ‘Very Honest and Open’ With Her Daughters
During the interview with TODAY, Heming Willis opened up about keeping her daughters updated on their dad’s diagnosis. “We’re a very honest and open household,” she said. “It was important that we let them know what [the disease] is because I don’t want there to be any stigma or shame attached to their dad’s diagnosis or for any form of dementia.”
She added that she wants to keep finding the joy in living. “There’s so many beautiful things happening in our lives, it’s just really important for me to look up from the grief and the sadness so that I can see what is happening around us,” she said in the interview. “And, you know, Bruce would really want us to be in the joy of what is. He would really want that for me and our family.”
Evelyn Is Researching Dementia
In May 2023, Heming Willis shared the sweet way Evelyn is processing her dad’s illness. “So Evelyn says to me the other day, ‘Did you know that people with dementia can become severely dehydrated?’ And I said, ‘Oh.’ I said, ‘I didn’t know that, but how do you know that?”
“She said, ‘Well I was at school the other day, and I had some free time and I was looking up fun facts about dementia.’” Heming Willis continued, “Now, that’s not funny, but it’s kind of funny. And she really is her father’s child because these two love some just … random facts.”
Heming Willis said, “So I said to her, I said, ‘Okay Evelyn, we will always make sure daddy has a bottle of water in hand. Thank you for letting me know.’ And I said, ‘But that is the most loving and compassionate thing that you can do is to be curious and educate yourself on your dad’s disease.’”
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