Emma Heming Willis is sharing how she still catches glimpses of her husband Bruce Willis’ warm personality as he faces his frontotemporal dementia (FTD) diagnosis.
In a preview of her interview with Diane Sawyer that aired on Good Morning America Tuesday, Aug. 26, Emma said her family continues to experience moments when the 70-year-old actor shows flashes of his familiar charm.
“It’s his laugh, right? He has such a hearty laugh,” said Emma, 47. “And sometimes you’ll see that twinkle in his eye, or that smirk. I just get transported.”
Through tears, she added, “And it’s just hard to see, because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes,” snapping her fingers.
In March 2022, the Willis family shared that Bruce had been diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that affects communication, leading him to retire from acting. By February 2023, Emma revealed that Bruce was also diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
Speaking with Sawyer, 79, Emma — a model, author, and activist — remembered noticing changes before his official diagnosis. “For someone who was very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet,” she said.
“And when the family would get together, he would kind of just melt a little bit,” she explained. “He felt a little removed, very cold. Not like Bruce, who is very warm and affectionate. To go in the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary.”
Emma, whose book The Unexpected Journey comes out Sept. 9, said she doesn’t think her husband ever fully understood what was happening to him.
As for her own reaction, she described feeling “panicked” when first hearing the diagnosis. “I just remember hearing it and just not hearing anything else. It was like I was free-falling,” she recalled.
Emma — who shares daughters Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, with Bruce — added that “FTD can be diagnosed as bipolar, midlife crisis, depression,” noting that “a lot of doctors don’t know about” the condition at all.
Even with the struggles, she said she feels thankful: “I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.”
