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Emma Heming Willis shares how Bruce Willis’s frontotemporal dementia has changed their communication, inspiring her memoir and advocacy for FTD awareness and research.
Emma Heming and Bruce Willis have been married since 2009.
Emma Heming Willis has opened up about life with her husband, actor Bruce Willis, as he continues his battle with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The Hollywood star, now 70, was first diagnosed with aphasia in 2022, and his condition was later confirmed to be FTD. Speaking ahead of the release of her memoir, Emma described how she and Bruce have developed new ways to connect.
Emma, 47, said that her husband’s illness has changed how they communicate, but it has also brought them a unique closeness.
“Bruce and I now have our own language, our own way to be with each other,” she told The Sunday Times. “It’s just about sitting with him, walking with him, listening to him as he tries to verbalise in his own language. Hearing him, validating him. You know.
“I can’t ask him how he’s feeling, what’s wrong, or if something hurts. Instead I read his body language or look into his eyes to understand what’s bothering him and what he’s experiencing.”
Emma and Bruce married in 2009 after meeting in 2005 through her trainer, Gunnar Peterson. The couple share two daughters, Mabel Ray, 13, and Evelyn Penn, 11. Since his diagnosis, Emma has become one of Bruce’s primary caregivers, supported by their family, including his ex-wife Demi Moore and his three older children.
Her forthcoming memoir, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, is about her role and aims to provide support to others facing similar challenges.
Alongside caring for Bruce, Emma has become an advocate for raising awareness about frontotemporal dementia, a condition that primarily affects people under 65. The disease damages the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, often leading to significant changes in speech, behaviour, and personality.
Professor James Rowe told The Telegraph, “The temporal lobes are where our language centres are based. Damage here can mean we lose the ability to produce speech, and also lose the deeper understanding of what words and objects mean (called semantics).”
While FTD currently has no cure, research is ongoing. In Cardiff, Wales, scientists are trialing a one-time gene therapy that could potentially slow the disease’s progression.
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September 15, 2025, 14:20 IST
