Bruce Willis' wife Emma Heming shares emotional admission on learning about actor's dementia diagnosis

In a gut-wrenching new interview set to air later this month, Emma Heming has opened up on the moment she discovered her husband - Hollywood hero Bruce Willis - was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.

News first broke of the actor's ailing health back in 2022, when his family announced that he'd been taking a step back from the spotlight.

It was initially claimed that Willis was suffering from aphasia - a condition that affects communication skills - being that his cognitive abilities had been impacted.

Fans were further blindsided the following year, when it was revealed that his diagnosis had progressed to an extreme degree, and that the 70-year-old was suffering from frontotemporal dementia.

The condition is a degenerative variation of the heartbreaking condition, which Willis' family referred to as a 'cruel disease' in a statement.

Since then, the father-of-five's family - specifically, his wife Emma Heming and ex-partner Demi Moore - have been attempting to raise awareness of the condition in a bid to help those going through the same thing.

The statement releasing his diagnosis explained: "Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead.

"As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.

"Bruce always believed in using his voice in the world to help others, and to raise awareness about important issues both publicly and privately."

With this in mind, Heming this week spoke to broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer on behalf of her husband in a brand new interview, where she lifted the lid on the heartache of becoming her husband's full-time carer by the age of 47.

In an emotional teaser shared today (14 Aug) by ABC, the mother-of-two - who shares two daughters, Mabel, 12, and Evelyn, 10, with Willis - recalled the moment she discovered the extent to his condition.

"I was so panicked, and I just remember hearing it and just not hearing anything else," Heming confesses in the clip. "It was like I was free-falling."

Elsewhere in the interview, the British-American model went on to claim that, despite her family's circumstances, she's 'lucky' to be surrounded by such loving people.

"Love is beautiful. It's grand. It's unconditional," she continued. "I'm so lucky to feel the love."

Heming previously opened up about the often-harsh realities of caregiving, issuing a response online to the deaths of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa, after it was ruled that the former (who also battled dementia) wouldn't have noticed that his wife had died in their home.

"This is not something I would normally comment on, but I do really believe that there is some learning in this story," Heming told her followers.

"It's just made me think of this broader story, and that is that caregivers need care too and that they are vital."

She continued: "It is so important that we show up for them so that they can continue to show up for their person. I think that there's this common misconception that, like caregivers, they got it figured out, they got it covered. They're good.

"I don't subscribe to that."

She went on to emphasise that carers also need support, 'so that they can continue to show up for their person'.