Emma Heming has shared a deeply personal update on Bruce Willis’ health, revealing the actor is unaware he is living with frontotemporal dementia.
Talking about Cameron Rogers’ Conversations with Cam podcast, Willis’ wife explained that her husband never associates his symptoms with a medical condition and believes his behavior is completely normal.
When asked if Willis understands his diagnosis, Heming made it clear it’s not denial.
Instead, she described it as the brain’s way of dealing with the disease.
“I think that’s the blessing and the curse of this, Bruce never intervened — he never put the dots together that he has this disease,” she said.
She later added that as difficult as the situation is, she finds comfort in that reality and says she’s glad he doesn’t know about it.
Willis first stepped away from acting in 2022 after being diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that affects the ability to understand or express language.
The following year, his family said his condition had progressed to frontotemporal dementia, a form of dementia that commonly affects people under 60 and is often associated with personality changes, compulsive behavior and speech difficulties.
Heming clarified during the podcast that Willis still recognizes the people around him and noted that his condition is dementia and not Alzheimer’s disease.
She explained that everyday life now centers on adaptation and acceptance. “You just learn how to adapt and meet them where they are,” she said.
The couple, who share three children, had struggled for years with communication problems that Heming now understands were early signs of something more serious.
She admitted that getting answers wasn’t easy and that she had to push forward on her own to secure a diagnosis.
“It’s really hard to know when Bruce’s disease started and where he started to end,” she said, adding that she may never have a clear answer.
Heming also said that many couples experience a similar journey before a diagnosis is finally reached.
She explained that it can feel like a marriage is unraveling, sometimes even leading to thoughts of divorce, before everything suddenly makes sense when a medical explanation is found.
She noted that frontotemporal dementia can take a long time to diagnose and is often mistaken for depression, bipolar disorder or even a midlife crisis.
In August 2025, Heming spoke to Diane Sawyer about another difficult change in their lives, revealing that she and Willis are no longer living together.
At the time, she explained that the decision was made with their daughters’ well-being in mind.
“Bruce would want that for our daughters. He wanted them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his.”
Through his latest commentary, Heming continues to offer a rare and honest insight into life with dementia, focusing on compassion, adaptation and doing what feels right for their family in an incredibly challenging chapter.
