Bruce Willis' wife Emma Heming reveals how they communicate in 'own language' amid actor's dementia diagnosis
The 'Die Hard' actor, 70, received his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis in 2023
In the years since her husband Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, Emma Heming Willis has been forced to develop a language to communicate with the Hollywood veteran.
The Die Hard star was diagnosed with the health condition in 2023, after showing several indicators of forgetfulness.
Speaking to Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America recently, Heming - who wed Willis in 2009 - revealed it was his famously 'warm' personality that was the first to subside slowly.
Elsewhere, the former model went on to recall: "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 kind of just melt a little bit.
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"He felt a little removed, very cold. Not like Bruce, who is very warm and affectionate. To go in the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary."
"It just wasn’t Bruce," she added of his earliest days following the diagnosis. "It just wasn’t the man that I married. It was like waking up with someone else."
Since Willis's diagnosis, Heming says she and Bruce have developed a language to communicate with the 70-year-old.
In an emotional interview with the Sunday Times, the mother-of-two revealed: "Bruce and I now have our own language, our own way to be with each other. It’s just about sitting with him, walking with him, listening to him as he tries to verbalise in his own language."
Heming went on to add that her husband's condition has meant she must be more intentional about 'hearing him [and] validating him', after his ability to understand both written and spoken language began breaking down.
Heming's latest comments come just weeks after she revealed Willis had been moved into a second, one-storey home where he could receive around-the-clock care.
Revealing he no longer lives at the family home, she described the decision as 'one of the hardest' she's ever had to make.
"I didn’t know if parents would feel comfortable leaving their kid at our home," Heming told Sawyer last month.
"I isolated our whole family, and that was by design... That was a hard time."
Despite the move, however, the mum went on to reveal that she and her husband still eat breakfast and dinner together every day.
"I knew, first and foremost, Bruce would want that for our daughters," she continued. "He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs. We’re there a lot. 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."
Topics: Bruce Willis, Celebrity, US News, Health
Rhianna Benson