Emma Heming Willis isn’t hiding anything from her daughters when it comes to husband Bruce Willis’ health.
The entrepreneur, 46, spoke to Katie Couric for Town & Country about her actor husband’s frontotemporal dementia (FTD) diagnosis, noting that she hasn’t kept anything from the couple’s two young daughters — Mabel, 12, and Evelyn, 10.
“This disease is misdiagnosed, it’s missed, it’s misunderstood, so finally getting to a diagnosis was key so that I could learn what frontotemporal dementia is and I could educate our children,” Heming Willis shares.
“I’ve never tried to sugarcoat anything for them. They’ve grown up with Bruce declining over the years. I’m not trying to shield them from it.”
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When it came time to tell her family that they finally had a diagnosis for Willis, Heming Willis says it was important for her to tell her kids the whole picture, and emphasize that there is no cure.
“What I learned from our therapist was that if children ask questions, they’re ready to know the answer,” the mom of two shares. “If we could see that Bruce was struggling, I would address it with the kids so they could understand, but this disease is chronic, progressive and terminal.”
“There is no cure. Obviously, I don’t like to speak about the terminal side of this with them, nor have they asked. They know that Daddy’s not going to get better. There is no treatment, which is why I’m out there raising awareness, so that they can see that we have some agency in this.”
“I’m not going to allow FTD to take our whole family down. Bruce wouldn’t want that. They’re going to see me fight for our family, have some hope and help the next family out there,” adds Heming Willis.
In addition to Mabel and Evelyn, Heming Willis is also stepmom to Bruce’s older daughters Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, who he shares with ex-wife Demi Moore.