Bruce Willis’s wife gives health update on actor after ‘scare stories’

Bruce Willis still lives a life of ‘love, connection, joy and happiness’ following his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia

The wife of Bruce Willis has given a health update on the actor after reports he is living ‘without joy’ following his dementia diagnosis.

Emma Heming said she wanted to debunk false narratives about how her husband is living, after she was “clickbaited” by a headline about her family.

Heming said the action star still lives a life of “love, connection, joy and happiness” following his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

FTD is an umbrella term for a group of dementias which mainly affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which are responsible for such things as personality, behaviour, language and speech, according to Dementia UK.

In a video on Instagram, she said: “The headline basically says there is no more joy in my husband.

“Now, I can just tell you, that is far from the truth.

“I need society – and whoever’s writing these stupid headlines – to stop scaring people.

“Stop scaring people to think that once they get a diagnosis of some kind of neurocognitive disease that that’s it. ‘It’s over. Let’s pack it up. We’re — Nothing else to see here. We’re done.’ No. It is the complete opposite of that.”

She added: “There is grief and sadness. There’s all of that. But you start a new chapter.”

What are the symptoms of FTD?

According to Allzheimer’s UK

There are two types of FTD – behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA).

BvFTD, which results from damage to the frontal lobes of the brain, mainly causes problems with behaviour and personality.

PPA, when damage occurs to the temporal lobes on either side of the head nearest the ears, causes language problems.

Alzheimer’s UK says that FTD symptoms are “very different” to other more common types of dementia, such as day-to-day memory loss – adding that in the early stages of the disease, many people can still remember recent events.

In their statement on Thursday, Willis’s family said that challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease the actor was facing.

The NHS says FTD can also cause physical problems including slow or stiff movements, loss of bladder control, loss of bowel control, muscle weakness or difficulty swallowing.

Heming said that chapter is filled “with love, it’s filled with connection, it’s filled with joy, it’s filled with happiness”.

“That’s where we are. So stop with these stupid headlines. These stupid clickbait-y things that freak people out. Stop doing that. There’s nothing to see here, ok?”

In a caption on the post, she added: “My experience is that two things can be true and exist at the same time. Grief and deep love. Sadness and deep connection. Trauma and resilience.

“I had to get out of my own way to get here but once I arrived, life really started to come together with meaning and I had a true sense of purpose. There is so much beauty and soulfulness in this story.”

A file photo of Bruce Willis taken on January 09, 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)

It was first revealed in March 2022 that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects communication abilities.

Last year, Willis’s daughter Rumer provided an updated in which she explained he had received a “more specific” diagnosis of FTD.

Willis is best known for films such as Die Hard, The Sixth Sense and Pulp Fiction, but has stepped away from his acting career amid his health struggles.

According to Dementia UK, there is no prevention or cure for FTD and it is often best to “focus on practical strategies to help the person live as well as possible with the diagnosis”.

Willis’s family said that the lack of treatment for the disease was “a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead” with further research.