Bruce Willis‘ spouse, Emma Heming Willis, is giving new perception into his battle with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in a brand new interview with Diane Sawyer. A preview for the interview aired throughout the Tuesday, August 26, episode of Good Morning America, throughout which Emma defined how she and her husband reacted when a physician gave them Bruce’s official prognosis, which they shared publicly in 2023.
“I don’t suppose Bruce ever actually related the dots,” Emma admitted. As for herself: “To go away there with nothing, simply nothing, with a prognosis I couldn’t pronounce … I didn’t perceive what it was. I used to be so panicked. I simply keep in mind listening to it and simply not listening to anything. It was like I used to be free-falling.”
Dr. Bruce Miller, who has not handled Bruce however is an knowledgeable in FTD, mentioned that the Die Onerous star’s response was to be anticipated. “The affected person is extremely unaware of what’s occurring,” he defined. “I feel the elements of the mind that permit us to undergo and self-reflect are misplaced very early in FTD.”
FTD isn’t Alzheimer’s illness, because it tends to strike earlier (the imply age in sufferers is 56). “Bruce remains to be very cell,” Emma shared. “Bruce is in actually nice well being total. It’s simply his mind that’s failing him. The language goes. We’ve realized to adapt and now we have a method of speaking with him which is only a totally different method.”
She mentioned she began noticing that one thing was off along with her husband, whom she married in 2009, when he turned extra “subdued” than typical. “For somebody who could be very talkative, very engaged, he was just a bit extra quiet,” she revealed. “When the household would get collectively, he would sort of simply soften just a little bit.”
Bruce and Emma share two younger daughters, whereas he additionally has three grownup daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore. He started dropping phrases as a childhood stutter reappeared. “He felt just a little eliminated, very chilly,” Emma continued. “Not like Bruce who was very heat and affectionate. The exact opposite of that was alarming and scary.”
Now, there are nonetheless moments of lucidity. “We nonetheless get these days,” Emma mentioned. “Not days. We get moments. It’s his snicker, proper? He has such a hearty snicker and generally you’ll see that twinkle in his eye or that smirk and I simply get, like, transported. It’s simply laborious to see that. As a result of as rapidly as these moments seem … then it goes. And it’s laborious. However I’m grateful my husband remains to be very a lot right here.”
Emma and Bruce Willis: The Surprising Journey – A Diane Sawyer Particular, Tuesday, August, 26, 8/7c, ABC