Bruce Willis is now living in a one-story home separate from his family as part of his dementia care, as per his wife, Emma Heming Willis.
Speaking in a new ABC special, Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey, Emma opened up on one of the “hardest decisions” she’s had to make so far in light of her husband’s devastating diagnosis.
Willis, readers will likely remember, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023, less than a year after initially being diagnosed with aphasia.
With the iconic Die Hard actor having withdrawn from the spotlight, updates as to his condition have come few and far between. Back in March, a source told In Touch that Willis “doesn’t express hunger much,” explaining that his weight and decreased appetite are signs of a downward slope.
“According to family members, the challenge at home is making sure that he’s getting enough to eat, that he’s not skipping mealtime, and that his diet is filled with foods that have the chance to improve his health instead of subtract from it…This is a sad situation that should be familiar to anybody who is dealing with a close family member with dementia or Alzheimer’s.”
The insider further says his acuity is waning, added: “He can’t communicate anymore, and he has difficulty recognizing people.”
At the time, Emma Heming Willis revealed she was “triggered” by “blurbs of misinformation,” that claimed “there is no more joy in my husband.”
In a new ABC special, released on August 26, Emma told Diane Sawyer that her husband has now been moved into a separate home to accommodate his continued care.
“I knew, first and foremost, Bruce would want that for our daughters,” Emma says of two children they share, Mabel Ray, 13 and Evelyn Penn, 11. “He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.”
Emma told how the family had made the decision to move Bruce into a second home close by “some time ago”, having learned that noise can agitate the actor’s condition. That meant that her daughters could no longer host playdates and sleepovers.
“I didn’t know if parents would feel comfortable leaving their kid at our home,” Emma said. “I isolated our whole family, and that was by design…That was a hard time.”
First symptoms
She also detailed how Bruce’s new abode is more like a “second home” for the family.
“We’re there a lot,” Emma explained. “It’s our second home, so the girls have their things there.”
“It is, you know, a house that is filled with love and warmth and care and laughter. It’s been beautiful to see that, to see how many of Bruce’s friends continue to show up for him, you know, they bring in life and fun.”
Emma Heming Willis also opened up about her husband’s early signs, describing them as “alarming and frightening.”
“For someone who was very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet and, when the family would get together, he would just melt a little bit,” Heming Willis spoke to ABC about the first signs her husband experienced.
“He felt a little removed, a little cold, not like Bruce who was very warm and very affectionate. To go the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary.”
“Bruce is still very mobile,” Emma said elsewhere in the interview. “Bruce is in really great health, overall, it’s just his brain that is failing him.
“The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt. We have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different, a different way.”
