Emma Heming Willis has revealed the alarming advice she received from her husband Bruce Willis’ neurologist, a moment that made her realize she needed to take action for both herself and her family. "Caregiving can be really harmful to your health," she recalled in a new interview with NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas, which aired Wednesday, October 29. "I didn’t know that, and I was grateful, yet alarmed, that his neurologist shared that with me, and that was a call for me to start taking care of myself, not just for Bruce, but for our two young daughters."
The 47-year-old model also reflected on the earliest signs that something wasn’t right with her husband, long before his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). "I think for me what I noticed was that his stutter started to come back," she said. "Bruce had a severe stutter when he was a child that he held onto, actually, his life, but was able to kind of get a handle on it, I think, in his adult years. Then I started seeing that it started coming back. Never in my wildest dreams would I think that was now becoming a symptom of FTD."
Bruce and Emma share two girls, Mabel, 13 and Evelyn, 11, who have watched their father's health decline through his frontotemporal dementia which was diagnosed in 2023. Emma also recently spoke of how her daughters "grieve" their father who they "miss... so much".
"I think they’re doing well, all things considered. But it’s hard. They grieve," Emma told Vogue. "They miss their dad so much. He’s missing important milestones. That’s tough for them. But kids are resilient. [Although] I used to hate hearing that because people didn’t understand what we were walking through. I don’t know if my kids will ever bounce back. But they’re learning, and so am I."
When Emma found out about her husband's diagnosis she was quick to tell Mabel and Evelyn of their father's health issues. "Pretty quickly, I told them. I have always been very open with the girls. I never wanted them to think that [Bruce] wasn’t paying attention to them," she said on Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey with Diane Sawyer.
"What I learned is that when you give them the information, you wait to hear what the questions might be, and they really didn’t have questions about it. I think there was a sense of relief for all of us that, like, 'Okay, now we get it and now we understand,'" she added.