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Emma Heming Willis has confessed she considered divorce before Bruce Willis’ dementia diagnosis as he changed and their ‘values’ no longer aligned.
The Die Hard actor, 70, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2022 and his wife of 16 years Emma, 47, stepped into the role of caregiver; an experience she is detailing in her new book The Unexpected Journey: Finding Hope and Purpose on the Caregiving Path.
The former model has been open about the impact Bruce’s diagnosis has had on her life, sharing her experience over the years after they went public with the heartbreaking news in 2023.
Now Emma has shared further updates in an episode of The Oprah Podcast on Bruce’s condition, as she also confessed to considering divorce ahead of his diagnosis.
Emma says while Bruce is ‘speaking’ his words ‘don’t track’, but that he is ‘so present’ in the ‘here and now’.
‘All things considering I think he’s okay,’ said Emma, admitting: ‘His brain is dying and to have to witness it is traumatic.’
The former model started noticing something was wrong when Bruce’s childhood stutter returned, and they began to experience marital issues.
‘We weren’t aligning on things we used to,’ Emma said, explaining: ‘Our values didn’t seem to be matching anymore.’
‘100% thought about divorce, yes,’ Emma said. ‘I didn’t understand how our relationship was so connected, we were so enmeshed. And yet, all of a sudden things started falling apart.’
Emma said these struggles continued for a couple of years, before her intuition told her to visit the doctors.
‘I was just annoyed with him. I didn’t understand what was happening and the conversations we were having. We just weren’t aligned and I didn’t know why. He wasn’t raising his hand about anything, and I did contemplate divorce,’ she said.
Before his degeneration, Emma said Bruce was ‘very generous’ and as a husband he was ‘everything [she] could have dreamed of’.
‘He always put his children first, and I navigate my world through that lens today,’ she said.
Asked by host Oprah Winfrey whether Bruce understood his diagnosis in 2022 when they walked out of the doctors’ office with a pamphlet and the crushing news, she replied: ‘I don’t think so.’
Emma explained: ‘I don’t think it landed, and I’m grateful for that.’
It was the statistic that spousal caregivers die at a rate of 63% compared to the rate of non caregivers that made Emma realise she needed help from an outside source to manage Bruce’s deteriorating condition.
‘It was alarming, it woke me up. I thought, I’m not going to have my children lose both of their parents,’ she said.
This interview comes as it was revealed Emma had moved Bruce into care for the sake of their children.
In her interview with Diane Sawyer, Emma said of her decision to move Bruce into a home: ‘I knew first and foremost, Bruce would want that for our daughters, you know, he wouldn’t want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.’
Noise causes agitation for people with FTD, and Emma had to ‘isolate’ the family and stop having guests over before moving Bruce to a home where he could receive around the clock care.
What is frontotemportal dementia?
Frontotemporal dementia, aka FTD, is a less common form of dementia usually diagnosed in people aged 45-65, whereas dementia mostly affects people over 65.
The degenerative disease primarily affects communication and behaviour, as opposed to memory, like other types of dementia.
According to the NHS, signs of frontotemporal dementia can include:
- Personality and behaviour changes – acting inappropriately or impulsively, appearing selfish or unsympathetic, neglecting personal hygiene, overeating, or loss of motivation
- language problems – speaking slowly, struggling to make the right sounds when saying a word, getting words in the wrong order, or using words incorrectly
- problems with mental abilities – getting distracted easily, struggling with planning and organisation
- memory problems – these only tend to occur later on, unlike more common forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease
There may also be physical problems, such as slow or stiff movements, loss of bladder or bowel control (usually not until later on), muscle weakness or difficulty swallowing.
Read everything we know about Bruce Willis’ frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.
‘It’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him,’ she said.
Emma now spends breakfast and dinner with Bruce everyday and he receives regular visits from their daughters, friends and family.
When asked how Bruce reacted to the news that he would be moving out of his family home and into a care facility, she shared: ‘I don’t think he ever connected the dots.’
Bruce’s whole blended family, including his ex-wife Demi Moore, have rallied around the Hollywood star, as they remain a close knit bunch.
While Bruce and Emma share two children – Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11 – he also has three daughters – Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31 – from his 13-year marriage to The Substance star.
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