One of the more surprising and devastating celebrity health incidents of the last few years has been Bruce Willis‘s dementia diagnosis, which his wife, Emma, recently gave an update on.
The Die Hard icon’s wife has been speaking out about their family’s experience with the disease, consistently updating his fans on his condition, and raising awareness for families affected by the illness. During a more recent interview, she spoke about how doctors believe a condition he had as a child could’ve been a warning sign of his dementia years ago. Read more about what she had to say below.
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Emma Heming Willis Reveals One Of Bruce Willis' Childhood Conditions In A New Interview
Bruce Willis has been one of America's most beloved action stars for decades, but his life took a drastic turn in 2022 and 2023 when he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. The sudden onset of his illness changed his entire family's lives as well, including his 47-year-old wife, Emma, with whom he shares two young daughters.
In interviews and social media posts over the years, Emma, his famous ex-wife, Demi Moore, as well as his three adult daughters, Rumer, Tallulah, and Scout, have all been gradually updating the public on his tragically worsening condition, emphasizing that they're staying by his side as family members and growing stronger as a unit. During an interview with Katie Couric for Town & Country, the mom-of-two spoke about a condition her husband had as a child that, now, she and his doctor believe could have been an indicator that he would develop his illness later down the line.
"For Bruce, it started with language," she said. "He had a severe stutter as a child. He went to college, and there was a theater teacher who said, 'I've got something that's going to help you.' From that class, Bruce realized that he could memorize a script and be able to say it without stuttering."
She also admitted that the Pulp Fiction actor continued to struggle with a stutter since his childhood, but that "he has been good at covering it up."
More recently, Emma noted in a new interview with NewsNation that the stutter, which was "completely ignored " for a while, not only came back but was worsening, which ended up being an indicator that something else was going on as he got older. "I think for me what I noticed was that his stutter started to come back," she explained.
"Bruce had a severe stutter when he was a child that he held onto, actually, his life, but was able to kind of get a handle on it, I think, in his adult years. Then I started seeing that it started coming back. Never in my wildest dreams would I think that was now becoming a symptom of FTD."
Emma Recalls Telling Her & Bruce's Daughters About His Illness
It seems that every person and child in the 70-year-old's life is taking in every moment they have with him, on both good days and bad ones, with Demi and her daughters sharing emotional photos and messages on social media. However, earlier on, Emma revealed that in the days before his diagnosis, his symptoms and behavior almost led her to want a divorce.
"I felt like my marriage was crumbling," she told Vanity Fair in September.
"This is not the person that I married," she thought. "Something is just so off."
Emma is now the author of a book about her journey from becoming her husband's wife to his caretaker, and how the shift impacted them as a couple. Still, despite the challenges, she's emphasizing the notion of learning how to take care of yourself while taking care of someone else, and doing what she can to enjoy the time she has left with her husband.
Now, she describes the entire situation as "one of the most rewarding and transformative experiences of my life."
