Bruce Willis' wife shuts down 'clickbait' stories of 'no more joy' in actor after dementia diagnosis

Emma Heming Willis has asked the media to "stop scaring people" and says some headlines she's seen about her husband are "far from the truth."

Bruce Willis’ wife is reminding the actors' fans not to believe everything they read.

Emma Heming Willis took to social media over the weekend to dispel reports about her husband and family’s life since his condition progressed from aphasia to frontotemporal dementia (FTD) last year.

“It’s Sunday morning and I’m triggered,” she began in an Instagram Story. “I just got clickbaited. I’m just scrolling, minding my own business, and just saw a headline that had to do with my own family. The headline basically says there is no more joy in my husband. Now, I can just tell you, that is far from the truth.”

Voicing her frustrations about perceptions of dementia, she continued, “I need society and whosoever is writing these stupid headlines to stop scaring people. Stop scaring people to think that once they get a diagnosis of some kind of neurocognitive disease that ‘That’s it. It’s over. Let’s pack it up. Nothing else to see here, we’re done.’ No. It is the complete opposite of that, okay?”

Heming Willis, who married the Die Hard actor in 2009, explained that while her family's journey certainly includes “grief and sadness,” their story involves more than their most difficult moments.

“You start a new chapter and that chapter is filled — let me just tell you what it is. It’s filled with love, it’s filled with connection, it’s filled with joy, it’s filled with happiness,” she said.

Since she and her family shared her husband’s diagnosis with the world, the model and health advocate has been candid about the highs and lows they have endured. Along with expressing her “guilt” and “sadness,” Heming Willis has shared photos of the couple looking happy and celebrated their marriage on social media.

Sharing the video directly to her Instagram page, Heming Willis wrote, in part: "We are being educated by the wrong people. People that have an opinion versus an experience. People that have not taken the time to properly educate themselves on any kind of neurocognitive disease. Why can I be so bold and say that? Because I see headline after headline and blurbs of misinformation. I’m not even talking about my family… I’m just talking about baseline dementia awareness and what’s being fed to the public. You wonder why anxiety and depression is up in our society. I honestly think part of it has to do with this kind of clickbait, how things are framed and pushed out to us and how we have a split second to take that information in. Man, it’ll do a number on my psyche."

She concluded in the post's caption, “To whom it may concern, please be mindful how you frame your story’s [sic] to the public about dementia and dig deeper. There are so many wonderful organizations and specialist within this space to reach out to so you can really do your due diligence to iron your story and content out.”

Heming Willis previously announced the upcoming release of her book about dementia, which will draw upon her experience as a caregiver for her husband.

“Dementia not only affects your loved one but can shake a whole family’s foundation, and self, if you allow it,” she said in a statement last month. “Identifying the right resources to educate and enlighten myself has been powerful and has allowed me the space to continue to move forward in the most positive way so that I can be the best mother, wife, daughter, friend, and care partner. I want to be able to share that with the next person who finds themselves here.”

The book will provide a roadmap to caregivers, combining Willis’ personal stories with interviews and advice from experts. The still-untitled project, from Penguin Random House’s The Open Field imprint, is set to hit shelves in 2025.

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