Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis isn’t sure if her husband, who suffers from frontotemporal dementia (FTD), is currently aware of his condition.
Heming Willis told NBC’s Today co-anchor Hoda Kotb this morning that “it’s hard to know” whether Willis is aware of what’s happening to him.
“What I’m learning is that dementia is hard,” Heming Willis said. “It’s hard on the person diagnosed. It’s also hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our girls. When they say that this is a family disease, it really is.”
Frontotemporal dementia is an all-encompassing term for a group of brain disorders that threatens, as the name implies, the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. As the lobes atrophy, symptoms can include speech issues, emotional problems, changes in personality, loss of motor skills including problems walking, swallowing or muscle spasms.
Willis’ family went public with the actor’s condition in March 2022, announcing that Willis was stepping back from his career due to aphasia. By February of 2023, his condition had worsened to frontotemporal dementia.
Watch the Today show segment above.
