Bruce Willis was diagnosed with dementia in 2022, and nothing has been the same since. His wife, Emma Heming Willis, has been his caregiver since, and the family has been determined to make the most of their time left with the legendary actor. Of course, this is much harder than it sounds, but Emma assured that they are as “ready” as they can be for what comes next.
Emma Hemming Willis on Bruce Willis’ Dementia battle
Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia back in 2022, following which he retired from acting. Now, it has progressed to FTD. The group of brain disorders occurs due to frontal or temporal lobe decline. The disease is incurable.
Emma Hemming Willis recently spoke about her husband’s health and their current stance to USA TODAY at the EndWell Summit, a conference on death and dying for caregivers, clinicians, and grief advocates.
“That is the anxiety, right? Like, when will the next shoe drop? But I know that when/if it does, we’ll be ready,” she said. Emma has been on a caregiving journey for a while now, and she even wrote a book about it. “It doesn’t make it any less painful or hard to walk through,” she said.
She added, “But right now, we’re on stable ground.”
Before the diagnosis, Willis, like many others, did not really plan for his death. Emma spoke about this, adding, “We’re not thinking about care and our care plans, and we’re not thinking about death. But we really, we really need to, and we need to not view it in such a dark way.” She explained, “I have a care plan for the most part that’s intact and ready for my girls so that they don’t have to make all the decisions and figure everything out.”
She also spoke about how she does different things to care for herself, too. But they haven’t yet reached the point of preparing for the actor’s death. “We’re not there yet,” she said, “The girls are educated on FTD. I think that if they are to ask, I will tell them, but I think that they’re more focused on present day, that is where their questioning is mostly, but if it’s asked, I will always be honest and truthful.”
