HEALTHBruce Willis' Wife Emma Reveals the Clever Way He Continued to Act After Dementia Diagnosis
Emma Heming Willis opened up about how her husband, Bruce Willis, managed to finish his movies amid health struggles.
June 9 2025, Published 11:34 a.m. ET
Bruce Willis did not let his dementia diagnosis stop him from acting.
His wife, Emma Heming Willis, reveals in her upcoming book, The Unexpected Journey, the unique way he managed to deliver his lines on set for his final roles.
Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023.
Emma, 46, writes that her husband had employees feeding him his lines through an earpiece to combat his frontotemporal dementia (FTD) diagnosis. His script was also cut down significantly in films such as Assassin and the Detective Knight series.
Emma Heming Willis' Upcoming Dementia Book
Bruce Willis was fed his lines through an earpiece.
The Unexpected Journey will be released on September 9 and shares more insights into Bruce's health journey.
"My hope is that this book gives you permission to care for yourself. It gives you permission to ask for help and to know that you are not a failure if you do," Emma declared in a May 27 Instagram post.
The British model noted that the forthcoming title is a love letter to caregivers of people with dementia to help them feel seen and heard.
"Caregivers need all the support that they can get," Emma emphasized. "I am now reading this book from a different lens, as a caregiver who needs this book today...this book is so insightful. There is so much wisdom in there."
- Bruce Willis’ Wife Emma Had 'No Hope' After His Dementia Diagnosis: 'Trying to Hold My Family Together'
- Bruce Willis' Youngest Daughters 'Know Daddy's Not Going to Get Better' After Dementia Diagnosis, His Wife Emma Heming Reveals
- Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Frontotemporal Dementia, His Wife Emma Reveals: 'Condition Has Progressed'
Want OK! each day? Sign up here!
When Was Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Dementia?
Emma Heming Willis is releasing a book about dementia called 'The Unexpected Journey.'
Bruce was diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder due to brain damage, in 2022, which progressed to FTD by the following year. Although he announced his retirement at the time, the actor, 70, finished both Assassin and the Detective Knight series in 2023.
"On the day Bruce got his diagnosis, we left the doctor’s office with a pamphlet and a hollow goodbye. No plan, no guidance, no hope, just shock," she recalled at the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement Forum in Las Vegas on Monday, May 26. "The future we imagined simply vanished, and I was left trying to hold my family together, raise our two young daughters, and care for the man I love while navigating a disease I barely understood."
Bruce Willis was previously married to Demi Moore.
She lamented over the "trauma" of that shocking doctor's appointment and wished she had a "roadmap" to guide her from the start. Nonetheless, she remains a strong support system for her man.
"Today marks 16 years with the love of a lifetime," she wrote on a March 21 Instagram post celebrating their anniversary. "We’ve shared monumental highs and devastating lows, and through it all, we’ve built something timeless. I’m so deeply grateful for every chapter I’ve had with him and all the ones we’ll continue to write, in our language of unconditional love."
The couple wed in 2009 and share two children, Mabel, 12, and Evelyn, 10. Bruce was previously married to Demi Moore, with whom he has three daughters, Rumer, 36, Scout, 33, and Tallulah, 31.
