By Faye James

Copyright hellomagazine

Emma Heming revealed that she now shares her own “language” with her husband, Bruce Willis, amid his ongoing battle with frontotemporal dementia. The actor’s family announced his diagnosis in 2023, after he began to show symptoms of the disease such as balance issues, changes in personality and difficulty communicating. Emma explained to The Times that as a result, “Bruce and I now have our own language, our own way to be with each other. It’s just about sitting with him, walking with him, listening to him as he tries to verbalise in his own language. Hearing him, validating him.”

She added that their family journey was “hard”, as “FTD is just an unkind disease – it constantly takes. Even when you think it can’t take any more, it takes a little more.” The former model, who shares her daughters Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, with Bruce, has been open about his health battle, and how is has deeply affected everyone around him.

She released a book in September titled The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, to help other caregivers reckon with their own emotions. While speaking with The Times, she shared insight into how her relationship with Bruce had changed in a few short years.

“Do I think he knows, ‘Oh, this is Emma, and we’ve been married for this many years?’ I don’t know what that process is for him,” she said. “And when he puts his arms around me, it just feels like Bruce. It’s not different in that way. And that’s really, really beautiful and really, really heartbreaking. It’s such a loss.”

Emma added that since moving him into a separate home where he can receive around-the-clock care, their family had been doing better knowing that he was in the best place possible. “It’s made such a difference for more friends and family to have their own experience with him without it being my home, without me hovering or my anxiety of how to manage the guest and their expectations, and then have to see their reactions,” she told the publication.

The 47-year-old sparked backlash online after revealing that Bruce didn’t live with them anymore. She later explained that it allowed their daughters to live a relatively normal life and for Bruce to find peace and quiet, as noise can trigger symptoms of FTD. “The girls don’t need him to be this or do that,” she explained. “They have really adapted to his disease, and they know how to move around him. It’s beautiful, but it’s hard for them. They miss him.”

Emma is incredibly close with Bruce’s ex-wife, Demi Moore, and their three daughters, Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31. “I really turn to my stepdaughters and Demi, and they really are helping me navigate this,” she shared. “Demi and Bruce set it up for us to be able to thrive in this way, to be able to support each other.”

The Substance actress defended Emma amid the backlash over Bruce’s living situation, sharing on The Oprah Podcast that the mom of two had done “a masterful job” at keeping the family together during the ordeal.