Emma Heming Willlis is opening up about husband Bruce Willis’ health in the new ABC sit-down Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey.
In the hour-long special, which aired on ABC Tuesday, August 26, Diane Sawyer spoke candidly with Heming Willis, 47, about her love story with Willis, 70, and their family’s new reality following his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.
Heming Willis and Willis met in 2007 while working out at their mutual trainer’s gym. They tied the knot two years later in Turks and Caicos, later having a civil ceremony in Beverly Hills. The pair welcomed their two daughters, Mabel and Evelyn, in 2012 and 2014, respectively. (Willis is also the dad of three daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore: Rumor, Scout and Tallulah.)
Although Willis was initially diagnosed with aphasia in 2022, the family gave an update the following year to reveal he had received a “more specific diagnosis” of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), for which there are no treatments.
In a preview clip from Tuesday’s interview that aired on Good Morning America, Heming Willis shared that her husband is still “very mobile” and in “great health overall,” it is only just his “brain that is failing him.”
“The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt,” she explained. “And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a … different way.”
Despite his obstacles, Heming Willis shared that there are still “moments” where she and the family can see the “twinkle in his eye” coming through.
“It’s his laugh, right? Like, he has such, like, a hearty laugh. And, you know, sometimes you’ll see that twinkle in his eye, or that smirk, and, you know, I just get, like, transported,” she said. “And it’s just hard to see, because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes. It’s hard. But I’m grateful. I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.”
Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations from Heming Willis’ conversation with Sawyer:
Bruce Willis Wanted Diane Sawyer to Set Him Up With a Nice Girl Before Emma Heming Willis
Sawyer showed a throwback interview from the early 00s where he asked the journalist, “Can’t you find someone for me? Can’t you find me a girl? You just meet so many people.”
She then showed a clip from a 2009 interview right after Willis and Heming Willis tied the knot.
“I got married, I was bowled over, I was astounded,” he said of his now-wife, before joking that he “always” had a crush on Sawyer.
Emma Heming Willis on Meeting Bruce Willis’ Big Family
Heming Willis said she wasn’t intimidated by spending time with Willis’ kids, his ex-wife, Moore and her then-husband, Ashton Kutcher.
“Everyone was just open arms, so warm,” she gushed. “To see him with his kids and his ex-wife and her husband you just see who he is at his core. I love that I was able to witness that and then become a part of that.”
Heming Willis added that she “loved watching him be him,” with Sawyer noting that Willis would often “order everything on the menu” and drop $100 dollar bills for the waitstaff.
“He was going to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it,” she said.
Bruce Willis and Emma Heming Willis’ Marriage Was Deeply Affected by His Dementia
Heming Willis said she started to realize things were changing when he stopped taking his kids to school after it was something he “loved” to do for so long.
“For someone who is very talkative and very engaged he was a little more quiet,” she explained. “And when the family would get together he’d just melt a little bit.”
Heming Willis thought it might be his hearing, something he partially lost after an incident on the set of the first Die Hard film. His stutter, which “haunted” him in childhood, also returned and he started becoming “indifferent” and “pulling away” from her.
“He felt a little removed, a little cold, not like Bruce, who is very warm and affectionate. To go the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary,” Heming Willis confessed. “I didn’t understand what was happening and I thought just, like, ‘How can I remain in a marriage that doesn’t feel like what we had?’”
She said the pair did have “conversations” about their issues, but Willis would “dismiss” them. “It got very bumpy and confusing,” she confessed.
Willis’ joy “fluctuated,” Heming Willis said, sharing that at times things were “good,” until all of a sudden they “weren’t.”
Bruce Willis Started to Have Issues at Work
Sawyer claimed that Willis, who “loved his job and loved to work” started to fuel rumors things might be off when he began “missing lines and cues and sometimes seeming confused and no one knew why.”
Emma Heming Willis Didn’t Know Who to Trust
Because of his status as a public figure, Heming Willis said she didn’t know who she could talk to and she would often Google in hopes of finding answers on her own. She ended up hoping it was just a “benign brain tumor.”
Emma Heming Willis on Getting the Diagnosis
Doctors told Heming Willis that there was “no hope” and no cure. “To leave there with no … nothing, just nothing. With a diagnosis I couldn’t pronounce. I didn’t understand what it was,” she said after hearing Bruce’s diagnosis. “I was so panicked. I just remember hearing it and just not hearing anything else. It was like I was free-falling.”
When asked how Bruce reacted to his diagnosis, Emma replied, “I don’t think Bruce ever connected the dots.”
Emma Heming Willis Didn’t Wait to Tell the Kids
Heming Willis revealed she told her youngest daughters “pretty quickly” about Willis’ diagnosis. “I’ve always been very open with the girls. I never wanted them to think he wasn’t paying attention to them,” she said.
She explained that when you “give them the information, you wait to hear what their questions are,” but her daughters didn’t have many.
“It was relief, like, ‘OK, now we get it, now we understand truly what’s happening,” she said.
Heming Willis added that she can’t remember the last time she had all of her husband with her. “I’m so caught up in what today looks like and walking this journey with him today that I can’t remember,” she confessed through tears.
Emma Heming Willis Isolated Herself and Her Family
After Willis’ diagnosis, Heming Willis learned that noise can cause agitation, so her children stopped having playdates and sleepovers at their home.
“I didn’t know if parents would feel comfortable leaving their kid at our home,” she explained. “I isolated our whole family and that was by design. … that was a hard time.”
After Willis’ daughter Scout confessed she was more worried about Heming Willis than her dad, Heming Willis had to take a look at her own well being. She was treated for depression and brought in professional caregivers. She noted that she waited too long to reach out for support from others in person and online.
Emma Heming Willis on If Bruce Willis Recognizes Her
Heming Willis says she feels Willis “does” know who his family is. “I know he does. When we are with him he lights up, he’s holding our hands, we’re kissing him, we’re hugging him, he’s reciprocating, he into it,” she said. “That’s all I need. I don’t need him to know that I am his wife and we were married on this day. I don’t need any of that. I just need to feel that I have a connection with him. And I do.”
Flashes of Bruce Willis
Heming Willis said her husband’s language is going, but he family has their own “way of communicating” with him.
She recalled one instance where she was helping Willis change a new shirt with their daughter Mabel when she pointed to his stomach and said, “Daddy is getting fat!” To her surprise, Willis turned to Mabel and said, “You think I’m fat?!”
They were surprised by his response, as she couldn’t remember the last time he was able to put “words together” in that way.
Moving Bruce Willis to New Location
Heming Willis ultimately made the decision to move Willis to a second, one story home where he could have around the clock care. She revealed that she goes there every day for breakfast and dinner, calling it “one of the hardest decisions that I’ve made” but one she knew Willis would want “for our daughters.”
What Emma Heming Willis Would Like to Ask Bruce Willis
“Just how he’s doing. If he’s OK. If he feels OK. If there’s anything else we could do to support him better,” she said. “I would really love to know that. If he’s scared, if he’s ever worried. I just would love to be able to have a conversation with him.”
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