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Tribune News Service

Bruce Willis showed signs of decline years before his aphasia diagnosis – but another condition he had since childhood kept wife Emma Heming Willis’ concerns at bay.
In 2022, Willis’ family announced the Die Hard star would retire from acting after being diagnosed with a cognitive disorder.
The following year, they revealed a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, which affects between 15 and 22 people out of every 100,000, or 1.2 million to 1.8 million people worldwide.
It is marked by a gradual, progressive decline in behaviour, language and occupational functioning.

“For Bruce, it started with language,” Heming Willis told American Town and Country magazine in an interview published this week. But those early changes in the Emmy winner’s speech did not initially alarm her, she said, as he struggled with a “severe stutter” well into his teenage years.
“Bruce has always had a stutter, but he has been good at covering it up. As his language started changing, it [seemed like it] was just a part of a stutter, it was just Bruce,” the former runway model said. “Never in a million years would I think it would be a form of dementia for someone so young.”
“I could hardly talk. It took me three minutes to complete a sentence,” Willis is quoted as saying in Bruce Willis: The Unauthorized Biography, published in 1997. “Yet, when I became another character, in a play, I lost the stutter. It was phenomenal.”
It was that discovery that “propelled him into acting”, Heming Willis – who in 2016 presented her husband with an award from the American Institute for Stuttering – told Town and Country.
I wish I had heard from someone, like, ‘I know this feels horrible and very traumatic, but you’re going to be OK’
Emma Heming Willis, on her motivation for writing a book
Willis, who was 67 at the time of his diagnosis two years ago, is currently “stable” in his battle with the disease, his ex-wife Demi Moore said earlier this month.
People with FTD can live with the disease for years, but there is no cure and sufferers face an increased risk of falls, infections and diseases including pneumonia, which can be fatal, according to American medical institution Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Wendy Williams, the 60-year-old former talk show host who went off the air in 2022, was diagnosed earlier this year with aphasia and FTD. The Lifetime docuseries Where Is Wendy Williams? chronicles her cognitive deterioration with “radical honesty”, the series’ executive producer Mark Ford said in February.
Heming Willis told Town and Country that she has “never tried to sugar-coat” Willis’ condition for their two young daughters, aged 10 and 12.
“What I learned from our therapist was that if children ask questions, they’re ready to know the answer,” she said. While the girls do not understand all the details, she added, they know “Daddy’s not going to get better”.

Heming Willis said she works diligently to raise awareness of FTD with the help of Willis’ eldest three children, whom the former actor had with Moore.
She previously supported New York state senator Michelle Hinchey – whose father had primary progressive aphasia frontotemporal dementia – in creating an FTD registry, “so that when anyone in the state of New York is diagnosed, it gets recorded”.
Heming Willis is also working on a book for carers, which she first announced in February.












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A post shared by Emma Heming Willis (@emmahemingwillis)



“It’s not just about how to care for your loved one, it’s about how to look after yourself in the process,” she said. “All these experts and clinicians who have helped me find my own footing in this have said, ‘You cannot be a caring partner for your loved one if you are not caring for yourself.’”
Heming Willis called the untitled work “the book that I wish I had been handed when we got the FTD diagnosis”.
“I wish I had heard from someone, like, ‘I know this feels horrible and very traumatic, but you’re going to be OK,’” she said.
Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.


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Wellness

Actor Bruce Willis’ stutter hid his dementia for years, wife says

Willis at the UK premiere of Glass in 2019. Photo: EPA/EFE

Bruce and Emma Heming Willis. The Hollywood star’s wife, who is writing a book about being a carer, says “never in a million years” would she have thought her husband’s stutter was a sign of frontotemporal dementia, or FDT. Photo: @emmahemingwillis/Instagram

Willis at the UK premiere of Glass, in London in 2019. The actor retired in 2022 after being diagnosed with dementia. Photo: EPA/EFE

Willis with his daughters Rumer Glenn, Scout LaRue and Tallulah Belle. Photo: @demimoore/Instagram

Why Bruce Willis is the last classic Hollywood movie star. Look at his range, author says

Actor Bruce Willis started in 1980s TV series Moonlighting, hit the big time with the Die Hard franchise, and took risks with roles in Pulp Fiction, The Fifth Element and Sixth Sense. His versatility and the way he used his star power in Hollywood may not be seen again. Photo: EPA-EFE

The cover of Sean O’Connell’s book. Photo: Applause/TNS

Willis as John McClane in a still from A Good Day to Die Hard (2013). Photo: Fox

Willis as Butch and Maria de Medeiros as Fabienne in a still from Pulp Fiction (1994). Photo: Miramax Films

Damon Wayans and Willis in a still from The Last Boy Scout (1991). Photo: SCMPost

Willis in a still from Die Hard (1988). Photo: Gordon Company

Willis as child psychologist Dr Malcolm Crowe and Haley Joel Osment as Cole Sear in a still from The Sixth Sense (1999). Photo: Reuters

Tom Hanks and Willis in a still from The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). Photo: SCMPost

Willis and director Terry Gilliam fool around during their press conference in Berlin before presenting 12 Monkeys at the Berlinale film festival in 1996. Photo: AFP

Aphasia: what it is, how it happens and how to help those suffering from it and related conditions

SHANGHAI, CHINA - NOVEMBER 04: American actor Bruce Willis attends CocoBaba and Ushopal activity on November 4, 2019 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Aphasia is a disorder that affects communication, making it hard to say, remember, write or read certain words. It is often caused by stroke. Photo: Getty

Stroke is one of the most common causes of aphasia. Photo: Getty

Anthony Kong Pak-hin, a professor of speech and language pathology at the University of Hong Kong, says one in 250 people in the US live with aphasia.

Aphasia can make it difficult for people to say, read or understand certain words. Photo: Getty Images

Actress Sharon Stone suffered aphasia after a brain aneurysm 20 years ago. Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Jeremy Greenlee, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Iowa, has studied the brain areas activated during speech including regions not previously associated with talking.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a non-invasive method to help treat aphasia sufferers. Photo: Shutterstock

An injury to the brain, through stroke, disease or trauma, can cause aphasia. Photo: Shutterstock

Hong Kong carer influencers share experiences on social media to support fellow carers

“Carefluencer” Merida Cheung with her grandmother Stella Yeung. Photo: Edmond So

Merida Cheung has been a secondary carer to her 101-year-old grandmother for seven years. She shares her experiences online as a “carefluencer”. Photo: instagram.com/babegranny.hk

Merida Cheung takes care of her grandmother Stella Yeung who is suffering from dementia. She documents her experiences on her Facebook page. Photo: Edmond So

“Carefluencers” benefit from writing and talking about their experiences, says psychologist Adrian Low. Photo: Belight Studio

Merida Cheung with her grandmother Stella Yeung in Yuen Long. Photo: Edmond So

The app Care Compass was a result of Grace Cheng’s personal struggles and gaps she identified in caring. She is also the founder of social enterprise Agewhale. Photo: Samuel Wong

Merida Cheung with her grandmother Stella Yeung, who has dementia. Photo: Edmond So

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Hathaway as Catwoman in a still from The Dark Knight Rises. Photo: Warner Bros

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Hathaway on the set of The Devil Wears Prada. Photo: Getty Images 

Hathaway in a still from Les Misérables. Photo: Universal Pictures

Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

Entertainment

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Film & TV

‘Just a part of a stutter,’ Emma Heming Willis thought. Then came dementia diagnosis. She’s writing a book to remind carers about self-care


‘Just a part of a stutter,’ Emma Heming Willis thought. Then came dementia diagnosis. She’s writing a book to remind carers about self-care.
