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Willis’s family announced his diagnosis with FTD in 2023
Brittany MillerThursday 27 November 2025 18:42 GMTComments
CloseRelated: Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming two-word response for critics amid his dementia diagnosis
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Emma Heming Willis has spoken about how she plans on incorporating her husband, Bruce Willis, into their holiday plans amid his dementia diagnosis.
The 70-year-old Die Hard actor’s family announced in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), only a year after they said he was “stepping away” from acting because he had aphasia.
Since announcing her husband’s diagnosis, Heming Willis has been open about his physical health and how it’s affected their family, including their two daughters, Mabel Ray, 13, and Evelyn Penn, 11.
Despite Willis no longer living at home, she plans on making sure he stays involved in the family activities.
“It’s joyous. It’s just different,” she said in an interview published with People magazine Thursday. “Bruce loved Christmas and we love celebrating it with him. It just looks different, so we've kind of adapted to that.”
open image in gallery‘Bruce loved Christmas, and we love celebrating it with him,’ Heming Willis said (Getty)
open image in galleryWillis recently spoke about being the caregiver for her husband at End Well 2025 last week (End Well)“You have to learn and adapt and make new memories, bring in the same traditions that you had before,” she added.
“Life goes on. It just goes on. Dementia is hard, but there is still joy in it. I think it’s important that we don’t paint such a negative picture around dementia. We are still laughing. There is still joy. It just looks different.”
Her comments come one week after Heming Willis addressed criticism about her family’s decisions surrounding her husband’s care.
“F*** em! As Bruce would say,” she told the audience at End Well 2025, a Los Angeles conference focused on end-of-life care.
During the event, Heming Willis joined actor Yvette Nicole Brown, who takes care of her father, to discuss their experiences as caregivers.
The model’s dismissal of her critics came after Brown asked her about the criticism she faced earlier this year when she moved Willis out of their family home due to the degenerative nature of his condition.
At the time, Heming Willis said her husband would have wanted their two daughters’ lives to be unaffected by adjustments to their home, but it did not stop trolls from judging her decision.
“I tell you, when I heard about the house thing, I wanted to throw elbows for you, honey,” Brown said. “Because the thing is, what people don’t understand who aren’t caregivers, is that every caregiver is different, especially if you’re dealing with dementia or alzheimer’s, it’s very unwieldy... And we all are doing our best and making the best decisions for your family. So when they came for you, I wanted to come for them.”
Heming Willis became emotional as she went on to say she was forced to make “impossible decisions” in the wake of her husband’s diagnosis.
“This is not how I envisioned our life,” she said through tears. “So I had to make the best and safest decision for our family. And I knew, by being honest and open about it, that it would be met with a lot of judgment.
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