Emma Heming on relationship with Bruce Willis amid his dementia: ‘Our love story has only grown’

Sometimes, love does not need words

Bruce Willis has mostly stayed behind closed doors after he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in November 2022. But long before the diagnosis, little hints that all was not well at home — where the former cop, 70, always played and lived large — started slipping in. This is when his wife, Emma Heming Willis, 49, started to notice small differences. The Die Hard star was having trouble coming up with words and reverting to a childhood stutter.

At the time, neither of them knew the husband was displaying early symptoms of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), one of the forms of FTD.

Emma told people, “FTD can affect people in different ways, and there are three different subtypes. There is one that affects behaviour, one that affects speech, and then another one that can affect movement. For Bruce, it was a speech.”

Emma said that PPA has not dimmed Bruce’s presence but has changed the way he communicates. She explained, “I feel like our love story has only grown and developed more,” she told People. Simple moments have taken on new weight-laughing together, sharing glances, sitting quietly. “It sounds woo-woo, but it is just on a more cellular level. I am so grateful that he is very much here, very much a part of our day-to-day."

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She further added, “Emma added, "Sometimes, love does not need words. I can just sit there with Bruce, and we look at each other and we laugh and smile and that, to me, is more than anything."
For the unversed, Bruce Willis and Emma Heming met in 2007 and soon started dating. The couple exchanged vows in March 2009. They welcomed their first daughter, Mabel, in 2012, and their second child, Evelyn, in 2014.

Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia in 2022, followed by the specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023. Emma has always been his caregiver and advocate in his thick and thin.

In her new  book, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, Emma Heming Willis shares her family's experience. For those who are caring for a loved one who has a neurodegenerative disease, the book provides courage and hope. It is currently available for preorder and will be released on September 9.