Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming, revealed “it’s hard to know” if her husband is aware of his dementia in a recent interview. Willis announced his retirement from acting in March 2022 after being diagnosed with aphasia. According to the actor’s family, his condition has developed into frontotemporal dementia.

Dementia is hard. It’s hard on the person diagnosed. It’s hard on the family. And that’s no different for Bruce or myself or our daughters,” Heming said. ‘This is a family disease,’ they say, and it really is.”

Heming and Willis have two daughters, 11-year-old Mabel and 9-year-old Evelyn, who are very aware of their father’s condition. She told Hoda Kotb on “Today” that her household is very honest and open. When you know what the disease is from a medical standpoint, it makes sense,” Heming said when disclosing her husband’s diagnosis to their children.

I wanted them to be informed about it because, you know, I don’t want there to be stigma or shame associated with their dad’s diagnosis. “This is not what I would want for them,” Heming said of her young daughters growing up with an ill parent. According to her, “it is teaching them so much – how to love and care for each other.” 

It’s a beautiful thing amid the sadness, she said.