Emma Heming Willis is responding to backlash over the revelation that her husband, Bruce Willis, lives in a separate home nearby amid his battle with dementia.
Heming Willis, 47, appeared in the ABC documentary Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey – A Diane Sawyer Special earlier this week to help spread awareness about her husband’s illness, frontotemporal dementia, which the actor was diagnosed with in 2022. After the special aired on Wednesday, August 27, Heming Willis received some criticism for revealing Willis, 70, has moved to a second residence where he received full time care.
“I think [the special] did a beautiful job at amplifying FTD awareness,” Heming Willis said in an Instagram video posted on Friday, August 29, “What I knew is that by sharing some of our intimate information that we would see the two camps, right. It would be people with an opinion vs. people with an actual experience.”
Heming Willis noted that seeing the “comments section” about her family’s setup and her husband’s health highs and lows made it clear that “people with an opinion” were “quick” to “judge the caregiver.”
She said that after watching the Diane Sawyer special, she revisited her book, The Unexpected Journey — Finding Strength, Hope and and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, which will be released on September 9. “Everyone will have an opinion, but you have to remember that most don’t have the experience to back it up,” she read from an excerpt, crediting her therapist, Kathleen Murphy. “And if that’s the case they shouldn’t offer their two cents about it and you shouldn’t pay them any mind.”
The book quote also noted, “They aren’t in your home so they don’t know how your person is behaving or your family dynamics.”
That message is something Heming Willis has taken to heart, especially when people are judging her choices amid Willis’ health battle.
Emma Heming Willis shared a new update about her husband Bruce Willis’ battle with frontotemporal dementia. Heming Willis, 45, discussed the disease on the Monday, September 25, episode of Today in honor of World Frontotemporal Dementia Awareness Week, revealing it’s “hard to know” whether Willis, 68, is aware of his dementia. “What I’m learning is […]
“The truth is the opinions are so loud and so noisy but if they don’t have the experience of this they don’t get a say and they definitely don’t get a vote,” she concluded in the video.
Heming Willis also added a caption to the Instagram post, writing, “Too often, caregivers are judged quickly and unfairly by those who haven’t lived this journey or stood on the front lines of it. Sharing openly may invite opinions, but more importantly, it creates connection and validation for those actually navigating the realities of caregiving every day. That’s who I share for and so I can build a deeper connection with a community that understands this journey 💙.”
This story is developing.
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