Legendary actor Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, joined the “Today” show in honor of World FTD Awareness Week, where she gave viewers an update about her husband’s current condition.
Host Hoda Kotb began by asking Emma how she and Bruce are doing since the actor’s diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). “You know, what I’m learning is that dementia is hard,” Heming Willis said on the show.
“It’s hard on the person diagnosed, it’s also hard on the family,” she continued. “And that is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our girls, and when they say that this is a family disease, it really is.”
“Does he know what’s going on? Is that something he’s aware of?” Kotb asked about Bruce.
“Hard to know, it’s hard to know,” Heming Willis answered.
She further discussed the importance of being honest with her children about what their father is suffering from. Heming Willis told Kotb she has shared his medical diagnosis with their kids and said honest conversations are an important part of their healing process.
“I don’t want there to be any stigma or shame attached to their dad’s diagnosis, or for any form of dementia,” she said.
Heming Willis admitted that finding out what was really wrong with Bruce had been a long road, and recalled learning about his condition.
“I think it was the blessing and the curse, to sort of finally understand what was happening, so that I can be into the acceptance of what it is,” she said. “It doesn’t make it any less painful, but just being in the acceptance is — and just being in the know of what is happening to Bruce just makes it a little bit easier.” (RELATED: Bruce Willis’ Wife Says She’s ‘Not Good,’ As She Continues To Care For Him)
Heming Willis calls herself Bruce’s “care partner,” not caretaker, and spoke about how she and her family are affected by his dementia diagnosis.
“It’s important for care partners to look after themselves so that they can be the best care partner for the person that they’re caring for,” she said. “Bruce would really want us to be in the joy of what is. He would really want that for me and our family.”