Bruce Willis' Wife Shares Touching Anniversary Update Amid ...
Bruce Willis' wife, Emma Heming Willis, has shared two touching and emotional 16th-anniversary posts on Instagram as the Die Hard star continues to battle frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Willis retired from acting in March 2022 due to his declining health, which the actor's family regularly updates fans on. Previously posting a joint statement to social media, Heming Willis, as well as Willis' ex-wife Demi Moore and his daughters, said FTD is a "cruel disease." They wrote: "Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis."
FTD consists of incurable disorders that cause degeneration in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, according to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD). This leads to "an inevitable decline in functioning" for the patient. There are no treatments to stop the progression of the disease.
On Thursday, Heming Willis shared her love for her husband on social media and revealed what it is like having a loved one who is ill. Newsweek reached out to a Willis representative via email and contacted Heming Willis via Instagram for comment via email Friday.
Heming Willis first uploaded two photos of her and Willis, in which they can be seen kissing each other on the cheek. She captioned the upload: "16 years with this special man. My love and adoration for him only grows."
Shortly after this post, Heming Willis uploaded a video of herself discussing how she feels on her and Willis' anniversary now that he is unwell.
"I just got off the phone with a really dear girlfriend of mine who I was able to have a good cry with. It is really important to be able to have someone that you can trust with your feelings instead of just bottling them up and putting your best foot forward and just kind of, soldiering through stuff, which I have a tendency to do," Heming Willis said.
"But holidays are hard, anniversaries are hard but for me this year has really been about community, building a community and connection. I just want to say that that has been my lifeline and I just want to thank you for that."
Heming Willis wrote further in the caption of the post about her thoughts on having friends and family she can rely on during difficult times.
"Bruce calls it the 'inner circle.' It's people that we are fortunate to have in our lives that we can call, trust and rely on. I'm lucky enough to have an inner circle of people that don't offer a way to fix-it but can just listen. That helps tremendously," Heming Willis wrote.
"That inner circle is also here on this channel. This past year it was imperative for me to finally be able to build community and connection. And you have shown up. People from all walks of life sharing the same unfortunate thread that connects us. I receive countless messages of love and support because Bruce is so beloved. That showers on him and I am fortunate enough to stand below that to catch those sprinkles that yet, feel like a waterfall of kindness."
Heming Willis added that, while she wishes she could answer all the "deep, raw and poetic" messages she receives from people, she wants people to know how much she appreciates them. She wrote: "It also makes me feel less alone. I am grateful to you."
Earlier this year, Heming Willis celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary with an Instagram post on March 21, calling Willis "the greatest love of my life."
"I woke with my heart full but what my mind kept going back to was another person's act of kindness yesterday. I wanted to share as it inspired the heck out of me," Heming Willis wrote on Instagram, alongside a picture of a bouquet a friend had bought her.
"It got me thinking about how hard these types of 'special occasions' can be on caregivers. When usually our person would acknowledge the event, now their changing brains just can't. And that is what it is.
"So my point is this. If you know someone that is looking after someone else, don't ask what you can do, just do. This random act of kindness will honestly stay with me for a long time," Heming Willis wrote. She then thanked her friend Juliya and credited her with "singlehandedly" making the day special for them both.
In a 2020 conversation with People, the couple said that they clicked right away during their first encounter.
"When we first met, I was surprised at how charming and how funny he was—and extremely handsome. That was my first thought of you," Heming Willis told the publication during a conversation with Willis. He added: "I was already in love with her."
Heming Willis and Willis met in 2007 at a mutual trainer's gym and made one of their first public appearances together at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, when Heming Willis accompanied Willis to the premiere of his film What Just Happened?
The couple tied the knot in Turks and Caicos in 2009 and have since welcomed daughters Mabel Ray, born in 2012, and Evelyn Penn, born in 2014. Willis also shares daughters Rumer, Scout and Tallulah with ex-wife Moore.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
