Bruce Willis' wife counters 'clickbait' with details of 'beauty and soulfulness' in actor's life
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Emma Heming disputed a headline claiming her husband Bruce Willis felt "no more joy" amid his aphasia and frontotemporal dementia diagnoses.
"I can just tell you that is far from the truth, okay?" she explained in an Instagram reel posted over the weekend. "I need society and who's ever writing these stupid headlines to stop scaring people. Stop scaring people to think that once they get a diagnosis of some neurocognitive disease that, that's it. It's over."
She added: "It is the complete opposite of that."
Read more: Amid Bruce Willis' dementia, Demi Moore urges sufferers' families to 'stay in the present'
Willis, the 68-year-old action star known for "Die Hard" and "The Expendables," was diagnosed with aphasia in 2022 and frontotemporal dementia in 2023. Heming said on Sunday that while she and her loved ones experience conflicting emotions about her husband's health, this chapter of caring for Willis "is filled ... with love, connection, it's filled with joy, it's filled with happiness."
Heming — Willis' wife of more than 10 years — went into more detail about the emotional aspect of her husband's health battle in her Instagram caption. "My experience is that two things can be true and exist at the same time," she wrote.
Feelings of grief, sadness and trauma come with other feelings of "deep love," "deep connection" and "resilience," Heming, 45, wrote to her Instagram followers.
Read more: Bruce Willis: What to know about his diagnosis and retirement
"I had to get out of my own way to get here but once I arrived, life really started to come together with meaning and I had a true sense of purpose," she said. "There is so much beauty and soulfulness in this story."
Heming's latest Instagram post echoed the battling sentiments she shared on NBC's "Today" show in September. Speaking to "Today" co-anchor Hoda Kotb, she said receiving her husband's frontotemporal dementia diagnosis was “a blessing and a curse to finally understand what was happening."
“It doesn’t make it any less painful,” she said at the time. “But just being in the acceptance [stage] and being in the know of what is happening to Bruce makes it a little bit easier.”
Read more: Bruce Willis' dementia diagnosis was 'a blessing and a curse,' Emma Heming Willis says
Similarly, in January, Willis' ex-wife Demi Moore encouraged people who are caring for loved ones with dementia to "let go of who they've been or who you think they [were]" and stay in the present. "You can then really stay in the present and take in the joy and the love that is present," she said.
In a second Instagram video shared Sunday, Heming said misleading headlines about her husband's condition affects more than just the Willis family. Stories that focus solely on the "doom and gloom" of the affliction can take a toll on caregivers and their support systems. She encouraged her followers, and media outlets, to consider more than just the negative "dark cloud" of a dementia diagnosis and to learn more about the disease.
Read more: Bruce Willis is 'incommunicative' and 'not totally verbal' now, 'Moonlighting' creator says
Heming, who shares two young daughters with her husband, has used her Instagram to celebrate moments with Willis — from family vacations, holidays and anniversaries.
"Stop with these stupid headlines, these stupid clickbait-y things that freak people out," Heming concluded her first video. "Stop doing that. Nothing to see here. Okay?"
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
