Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, is shedding light on her husband’s frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.
“It’s called frontotemporal dementia. Or FTD for brief. It affects the frontal lobe and the temporal lobes. That is executive decision, just your every single day type of functioning, language [and] compression. That’s in your temporal lobe. The variant, because there’s three various kinds of variants of FTD, the one which Bruce has affects language,” Heming, 47, explained on the Monday, June 15 episode of the “Bossticks” podcast. “But there’s one other variant that may affect behavior and one other one that would affect movement. So here’s three different variants to FTD.”
When asked if Willis’ diagnosis affects his memory, Heming replied, “No it doesn’t.”
“That’s a special a part of the brain,” she continued. “So when people say, ‘Oh, does he remember who you’re?’ Well, he does because he doesn’t have Alzheimer’s, he has FTD. I believe that’s a quite common misconception that, while you consider dementia, we predict of memory loss.”
Willis’ family shared in March 2022 that he had been diagnosed with the language disorder aphasia. It was later shared that he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
Heming, who shares two children with Willis, explained that she will be able to feel like she’s facing an “ambiguous loss” while being a caretaker to her husband. (Heming and Willis, who tied the knot in 2009, welcomed daughters Mabel and Evelyn in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Willis can also be the dad of daughters Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 32, with ex-wife Demi Moore.)
“It’s grieving someone who’s alive,” she said. “And that’s what many people who find themselves caregivers to someone with dementia experience, because your person is there physically but perhaps not mentally or emotionally.”
Heming explained that every one types of dementia “take and so they take and so they take, sometimes very slowly and you’re grieving different losses on a regular basis.”
“You’re consistently in grief. I’ve just learned the way to navigate it,” she said. “Perhaps I’m just a little bit more used to it at this point than I used to be early on. But yeah, you’re just sitting with it and moving alongside of it.”
Following Willis’ diagnosis, Heming announced that she launched the Emma & Bruce Willis Fund for Dementia Research and Caregiver Support. The fund is “dedicated to advancing understanding of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) by raising awareness, supporting promising scientific research and strengthening support for caregivers,” People reported in March.
“This journey has opened my eyes to the realities so many families face when a loved one resides with frontotemporal dementia,” Heming said while accepting an award at The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration’s Hope Rising Profit on the time. “I consider deeply within the importance of supporting research while also showing up for the caregivers who carry a lot every single day.”
She continued, “Through this fund, my hope is to assist deepen understanding of FTD and ensure families facing it feel seen, supported and fewer alone. Bruce has at all times led with generosity and heart, and I do know he could be proud to see this effort helping families facing this disease.”