Bruce Willis’ wife Emma shares heartbreaking marriage admission before actor's dementia diagnosis

Bruce Willis' wife, Emma Heming, has made a heartbreaking admission about what happened to their marriage before the Hollywood A-lister received his dementia diagnosis.

In 2023, the family of the 70-year-old Die Hard actor revealed that he'd been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, which, according to the NHS, is a rare type of the condition that affects the front and sides of a person's brain, impacting their language abilities and behaviour.

The year prior, they released a statement that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, which is a condition that affects a person's communication skills and cognitive abilities.

"FTD doesn’t scream, it whispers," Emma, 47, told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview published yesterday (4 September). "It’s very grey to know where Bruce stopped and where his disease kicked in."

Bruce Willis' wife, Emma Heming, has opened up about how his dementia diagnosis impacted their marriage (VCG / Contributor / Getty Images)

Emma, who married Bruce back in 2009 before welcoming their two daughters, Mabel Ray, 13 and Evelyn Penn, 11, continued: "I started noticing his stutter started to come back, but I never in a million years thought that was a symptom of FTD. Conversations weren't really aligning anymore, and our relationship started to shift. It was hard to put my finger on why and what was happening."

Ahead of the diagnosis, Emma was confused as to why she and her husband started experiencing communication issues with Bruce becoming increasingly removed.

Frustrated and full of self-doubt, she recalled: "I thought it was something I was doing in our marriage that was not working anymore.

"It’s like you're banging your head against a brick wall. You're just like, 'Where is the miscommunication coming? What is happening within our relationship?'"

Eventually, she came to understand that her husband's absence wasn't down to anything she had done.

The family of the 70-year-old Die Hard actor revealed that he'd been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) back in 2023 (Jamie McCarthy / Staff / Getty Images)

"I have heard so many other couples that have gone through this where they just can't figure it out (and) think it's a marital problem, but in fact, it's a symptom of a disease," Emma explained.

Finally receiving an official diagnosis was a 'relief' for Emma, with any lingering frustration with Bruce disappearing there and then.

"There was relief in understanding, 'Oh, okay, this wasn't my husband, it was that this disease was taking parts of his brain'," she said. "Once you hear that, I just softened."

Speaking in a recent interview last month (26 August) titled Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, Emma explained that 'one of the hardest decisions I've had to make' was moving her beloved husband into a second, one-story home where he could receive around-the-clock care.

Emma assured that, despite no longer living together, she spends breakfast and dinner with Willis every day.

"I knew, first and foremost, Bruce would want that for our daughters," she told Sawyer. "He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs."

If you've been affected by dementia or Alzheimer's and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact the Alzheimer’s Society via 0333 150 3456 or visit their website for more information.