Bruce Willis’s wife, Emma Heming Willis, has opened up about how the retired actor is still able to maintain his independence despite his ailing health.
The Die Hard star’s family announced his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a degenerative brain condition that impacts communication and behavior, in February 2023. Willis was moved into a one-story home near his family’s home in August for the sake of the couple’s children, as well as to receive constant care.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Heming Willis, 47, said that despite the difficult adjustment, the move has been beneficial for Willis, 70, and his family. For example, every Friday night, he has a group of friends stop by for a “dude hangout.”
“It’s made such a difference for more friends and family to have their own experience with him without it being my home, without me hovering, or my anxiety of how to manage the guest and their expectations, and then have to see their reactions — their sadness at what is,” she told the publication.
Although Heming Willis still struggles with her husband’s diagnosis, she thinks the move was the right decision in order to help the couple’s two daughters maintain a more normal childhood, and for her own well-being.
“Ultimately I could get back to being his wife. And that’s such a gift,” she told The Times.
Heming Willis previously spoke to People about the decision to move Willis into a separate home — and the backlash it caused.
“Dementia plays out differently in everyone’s home and you have to do what’s right for your family dynamic and what’s right for your person,” she told the publication. “It’s heartbreaking to me. But this is how we were able to support our whole family, [and] it has opened up Bruce’s world.”
With her husband — to whom she has been married since 2009 — requiring “a calm and serene atmosphere,” Heming Willis told People she decided to move Willis to a home that is more conducive to his needs.
The actor is now living with a full-time care team in a one-story home as his condition develops and his needs become more complex and intensive.
Due to the degenerative nature of the illness, Heming said her husband would have wanted their daughters’ lives to be unaffected by adjustments to their home.
“We have two young children, and it was just important that they had a home that supported their needs and that Bruce could have a place that supported his needs... The kids can have playdates and sleepovers [again] and not have to walk around tiptoeing,” Heming Willis told People of the family’s arrangement.
“Everything just feels a lot calmer, more at ease now.”
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