Bruce Willis’s Wife Emma Says His Dementia Is Teaching Their Daughters “How to Love and Care”

"It’s hard on the person diagnosed, it’s also hard on the family."

Several months after Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, the actor's wife, Emma Heming Willis, is bringing the condition into the spotlight again for World Frontotemporal Dementia Awareness Week. She explained that it's been "hard" for everyone involved and added that she's not sure that the beloved actor has any idea what he's going through.

Frontotemporal dementia is a progressive neurological disorder that impacts cognition and behavior. In addition to that diagnosis, Willis also developed aphasia (which his family initially announced in March 2022), which Entertainment Tonight explains as a "brain-mediated inability to speak or to understand speech."

"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," Emma during an interview with Hoda Kotb on Today. She was joined by Susan Dickinson, the CEO of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration. When Kotb asked if Bruce knew exactly what he was dealing with, Emma answered, "It's hard to know."

Related: Bruce Willis's Daughter Tallulah Says He Still Remembers Her Amid Ongoing Battle With Dementia

"We're a very honest and open household," Emma added. "The most important thing was to be able for us to say what the disease was, explain what it is, because when you know what the disease is from a medical standpoint, it sort of all makes sense."

When she spoke about her young daughters, she continued to say that the family is forthcoming with everything to everyone involved

"It was important that we let them know what it 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 said. "To finally understand what was happening, so that I could be into the acceptance of what is. It doesn't make it any less painful, but just being ... in the know of what is happening to Bruce makes it a little easier."

Emma remains optimistic, however. She finished the segment saying that with so much good happening to the family, there's no reason to focus on Bruce's dementia. 

"There's so many beautiful things happening in our lives," she shared. "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. Bruce would really want us to be in the joy of what is, he would really want that for me and our family."

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