Emma Heming Willis opens up about Bruce Willis’ dementia battle
Emma Heming Willis has opened up about Bruce Willis’s battle with dementia, nearly three years after his diagnosis.
unbranded – Entertainment
The holidays can be a hard time for many families, and the Willises are no different.
Emma Heming Willis opened up about how she and her family cope during the holiday season amid Bruce Willis‘ battle with dementia during an appearance at the 2025 EndWell Summit earlier this month.
“It’s joyous. It’s just different,” Heming Willis, 47, told People magazine in an interview published Thursday, Nov. 27. “Bruce loved Christmas, and we love celebrating it with him. It just looks different, so we’ve kind of adapted to that.”
Following his retirement from acting in 2022 due to an aphasia diagnosis, Willis’ family revealed in February 2023 that the actor had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a brain disorder caused by degeneration of the brain’s frontal lobe.
“You have to learn and adapt and make new memories, bring in the same traditions that you had,” Heming Willis told the magazine. “Life goes on. It just goes on. Dementia is hard, but there is still joy in it. I think it’s important that we don’t paint such a negative picture around dementia. We are still laughing. There is still joy. It just looks different.”
Heming Willis and Bruce Willis have been married since 2009. The couple shares daughters Mabel Ray, 13, and Evelyn Penn, 11. Willis also has three daughters — Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31 — with ex-wife and actress Demi Moore.
Our lives are “very simple — [they] always actually [have] been,” Heming Willis reflected. “I think that just being able to be present with him, that is the joy. Me being able to be his wife with him. Those are the moments.”
As for what other families can do to get into the holiday spirit, the caregiving advocate has a recommendation that is quintessentially Willis.
“I think it’s important to put ‘Die Hard’ on because it’s a Christmas movie,” Heming Willis said.
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