Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, has opened up in a deeply emotional interview about her husband’s health struggles, sharing heartbreaking details about his battle with frontotemporal dementia and how the family is adapting to life with the condition. Speaking in a sit-down conversation with Diane Sawyer on ABC, Emma provided an update on the beloved actor, who was first diagnosed with aphasia in 2022 and then with frontotemporal dementia in 2023.

At 70 years old, Bruce is still physically strong, something Emma emphasized by saying, “Bruce is still very mobile, Bruce is in really great health overall.” But she followed with a painful truth: “It’s just his brain that is failing him.” Emma, now 47, has been married to Bruce since 2009, and together they share two young daughters, Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11. She explained that his ability to communicate has been declining, saying his “language is going” and that the family has had to learn to adapt by finding different ways to connect with him. Despite the challenges, she said there are still precious glimpses of the Bruce they know and love. When Sawyer asked if there are moments when Bruce feels like himself again, Emma answered, “We still get those days. Not days, but we get moments.” She described how his hearty laugh or the twinkle in his eye can bring her back to the man he used to be.

“Sometimes you’ll see that smirk, and I just get transported,” she said through tears. But those moments fade quickly, leaving her heartbroken. “It’s just hard to see, because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes. It’s hard,” she admitted. Still, she expressed gratitude for his presence, adding, “I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.” Emma also recalled the devastating day when they first received his diagnosis. She remembered the panic and fear as the doctor explained, saying she left the appointment with nothing but confusion. “To leave there with nothing, just nothing, with a diagnosis I couldn’t pronounce, I couldn’t understand what it was. I was so panicked.

I remember hearing it and not hearing anything else. I was free falling,” she said. She added that she does not believe Bruce ever truly understood or connected the dots about his diagnosis himself. Looking back, Emma shared that Bruce’s earliest symptoms were subtle but concerning. Once an outgoing and engaging presence, he started to grow quieter. “For someone who was very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet,” she said. During family gatherings, he would “melt a little bit,” withdrawing into the background. Emma explained that his personality began to shift in ways that were unsettling. “It felt a little removed, very cold, not like Bruce, who was very warm and affectionate.

To go the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary.” After his diagnosis of aphasia in 2022, Bruce retired from acting, stepping away from the career that had made him a Hollywood legend through films like Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, and The Sixth Sense. The following year, his family, including his ex-wife Demi Moore and their three daughters—Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31—announced his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis. At the time, the family issued a joint statement that said, “While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.

FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone.” Since then, updates on his health have been gradual. In September, Tallulah Willis told the Today show that her father was “stable, which, in this situation, is good.” In February, Demi Moore shared in an interview with Variety that she visits Bruce weekly and has made it a priority to support both him and Emma. “For me, there was never a question. I show up because that’s what you do for the people you love,” Moore said, reflecting the continued closeness of the blended family.

The journey has been one of resilience, love, and adaptation for the Willis family, and Emma has taken her experiences and turned them into a forthcoming book, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, which will be released on September 9. In it, she chronicles the challenges of caregiving while finding hope and strength in the process. For fans who have long admired Bruce Willis as an action hero, the updates on his condition have been heartbreaking. Yet through Emma’s honesty, the world sees not only the cruelty of dementia but also the enduring love that surrounds him.

Though his language and personality may fade in and out, his presence is still felt strongly by his family. Emma’s words are a reminder of both the pain and gratitude that come with caring for a loved one with a degenerative brain condition. Bruce Willis’ battle with dementia is deeply personal, but his family’s openness about his health has also brought attention to frontotemporal dementia, a disease many had never heard of before his diagnosis. In the face of heartbreak, Emma Heming Willis continues to show courage, resilience, and love, ensuring that while Bruce may be losing pieces of himself, his family will never let his legacy or spirit fade away.