Bruce Willis’ wife is giving an important update on his dementia battle.
In a preview of Emma Heming Willis’ sit-down interview with Diane Sawyer airing on ABC Tuesday night, the 70-year-old actor’s wife explained the current status of his health after he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023.
“Bruce is still very mobile,” Emma, 47, shared. “Bruce is in really great health overall, you know.”
“It’s just his brain that is failing him,” she added.
Emma — who has been married to the “Die Hard” actor since 2009 and shares daughters Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, with him — said that Willis’ “language is going” and the family has “learned to adapt” to communicate with him in “a different way.”
When Sawyer, 79, asked if there are “days that it would be Bruce again,” Emma replied: “We still get those days. Not days, but we get moments.”
“It’s his laugh, right? Like, he has such, like, a hearty laugh,” the model continued. “And, you know, sometimes you’ll see that twinkle in his eye, or that smirk, and, you know, I just get, like, transported.”
As she fought back tears, Emma explained, “And it’s just hard to see, because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes. It’s hard.”
“But I’m grateful,” she stated. “I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.”
Reflecting on the moment doctors told Willis about his diagnosis, Emma said, “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 recalled.
The author also said she doesn’t think Willis “ever really connected the dots” to be able to understand his diagnosis.
Earlier in the interview, Emma described the subtle symptoms that Willis had before he was officially diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
“For someone who was very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet,” she shared. “When the family would get together, he would just melt a little bit.”
“It felt a little removed, very cold, not like Bruce, who was very warm and affectionate,” Emma continued. “To go the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary.”
Willis was initially diagnosed with aphasia in 2022, at which point he decided to retire from acting.
The following year, Willis’ family — including his ex-wife, Demi Moore, and their daughters Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31 — announced he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
“While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” they said in a joint statement.
“FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone,” the family added.
Willis’ family members have given gradual updates on his health since his diagnosis. In September, Tallulah said on “Today” that her dad is “stable, which, in this situation, is good.”
In Feb., Moore, 62, told Variety she visits her ex-husband on a weekly basis and has been a source of support for Emma.
“For me, there was never a question. I show up because that’s what you do for the people you love,” the Oscar nominee said.
Heming Willis’ book, “The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path,” is out on Sept. 9.
“Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey” airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Eric Todisco
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