Bruce Willis’ Wife Emma Heming Reveals She ‘Freaked Out’ Researching His Illness
Emma Heming has been opening up about her husband Bruce Willis‘ ongoing battle with dementia, revealing that she began “freaking out” when researching his symptoms.
On the latest episode of her Make Time to Connect YouTube series, Heming spoke with Remember Me podcast hosts Maria Kent Beers and Rachael Martinez about the condition Frontotemporal dementia, which Willis was diagnosed with back in February.
“I didn’t know where to go, what to look up, I’m looking things up, and it’s freaking me out,” the model and entrepreneur shared before telling Beers and Martinez how much they helped her.
“At the time, I was listening to a lot of podcasts, and I thought, ‘Let me just go into the podcast section and put in Frontotemporal dementia and see what comes up,'” she continued. “There wasn’t a lot, but you guys popped up, and I just started listening to your podcasts and just felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so grateful to be able to hear other people’s stories.'”
Heming has been caring for Willis since he was first diagnosed with aphasia last year. According to HopkinsMedicine.org, aphasia is a “disorder caused by damage in a specific area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension [and] leaves a person unable to communicate effectively with others.”
Earlier this year, the Die Hard and Moonlighting actor’s diagnosis worsened to Frontotemporal dementia, which can affect behavior, personality, language, and movement.
Heming, who shares daughters Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, 9, with the movie star, praised Beers and Martinez and other care partners who have supported her through this journey.
“There’s nothing that levels the playing field like FTD,” she said. “And I have made some of the greatest connections with other care partners, people like you who just get it. There doesn’t have to be so much explanation.”
“You guys have been so helpful to me,” she added. “I want to say thank you. I’m surprised I’m not crying because that’s where I go to when I think of people who have been that lifeline for me.”
Heming also took to Instagram on Tuesday (October 3) to help raise awareness for FTD, stating how she is annoyed that the disorder is often lumped in with “other dementia” and not talked about openly.
“Now I’m annoyed,” she stated. “When doctors of media talk about dementia, they say, ‘Alzheimer’s and other dementia,’ FTD is the ‘other dementia’ and let me tell you something about that disease. It is real, it is out there, and it will bring you to your knees.”
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“I think it is a disservice and absolutely disrespectful for these ‘other dementias’ to be put in that category,” she continued. “I think it’s really important for us to know what these diseases are and call it what it is because that is where the confusion lies.”
“When people think of dementia, they automatically think of Alzheimer’s, so I do not want to see FTD swept under the rug,” Heming concluded.
