NEED TO KNOW
Emma Heming Willis opened up to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer about what she’d “really love to know” from her husband Bruce Willis amid his frontotemporal dementia (FTD) diagnosis
“I just would love to be able to just to have a conversation with him,” she added
Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+
Emma Heming Willis is reflecting on something she wishes she could share with husband Bruce Willis.
Two and a half years after revealing that Bruce had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the author, activist and former model opened up about her dynamic with her husband now during a sit-down with Diane Sawyer that aired Tuesday, Aug. 26, on ABC News.
After Sawyer asked what she’d like to talk to her husband about today if she could, Emma, 47, told her that her desired “conversation” would include simply asking Bruce, 70, “how he’s doing, [if] he’s okay, he feels okay. If there’s anything that we could do to support him better.”
“I would really love to know that. If he’s scared. If he’s ever worried,” added the mother of two. “I just would love to be able to just to have a conversation with him.”
The Willis family revealed in March 2022 that Bruce had been diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that affects the ability to communicate, and was retiring from acting. Emma then revealed her husband’s FTD diagnosis just under a year later.
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During her interview with Sawyer, 79, Emma said the Pulp Fiction actor “is in really great health overall” and “it’s just his brain that is failing him.”
“The language is going, and we’ve learned to adapt,” she explained. “And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different way.”
Bruce and Emma tied the knot in March 2009. They share two daughters: Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, who join three big sisters from Bruce’s previous marriage to Demi Moore: Rumer Willis, 37, Scout Willis, 34, and Tallulah Willis, 31.
While the communication with Bruce is different these days, “He’s holding our hands. We’re kissing him. We’re hugging him,” Emma told Sawyer. “That’s all I need, you know? I don’t need him to know that I am his wife, and we were married on this day … I don’t need any of that. I just wanna feel that I have a connection with him. And I do.”
Emma opened up earlier this week about the press surrounding her upcoming book and accompanying interviews, revealing in an Instagram video that she is “beyond grateful for the opportunities and the interest” in her family’s journey amid Bruce’s FTD diagnosis, but noting in the caption, “This isn’t about me or Bruce; it’s way bigger than that.”
“It’s about raising the voices of caregivers, breaking the stigma around dementia, and shining a light on what millions of families face every day, often with little to no support,” she continued.
Emma added that “the intention” of her forthcoming book The Unexpected Journey “is to remind caregivers (and the families and friends around them) that caregivers need care too,” adding the hashtags, “#caregiversupport” and “#supportcaregivers.”
Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
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