Emma Heming Willis’ upcoming memoir, reveals the moment her relationship with Bruce Willis “began to feel off” amid his ongoing health struggles.
“There were conversations that I recalled differently than Bruce did, and there seemed to be a lot of miscommunications between the two of us,” Heming Willis, 49, wrote in an excerpt from her book, The Unexpected Journey, shared by People on Wednesday, September 3. “Sometimes I’d think, Is he for real? Is he pretending? Or am I going crazy? The disconnect was subtle but happening more and more.”
Heming Willis said she “can’t pinpoint exactly” when these feelings started in the memoir, set to be released on Tuesday, September 9.
“Eventually, my patience began to run thin. I was often annoyed with Bruce, yet I knew nothing was more important to him than me and our family, so I found his behavior puzzling,” she wrote. “But he didn’t mention anything was amiss and his doctors didn’t flag any health concerns with me, so I assumed everything must be OK.”
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News broke in March 2022 that Willis, 70, was diagnosed with aphasia. The following year, his family confirmed that the condition had progressed to frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Heming Willis, who has been married to the actor since 2009, has been open about how her role in Willis’ life has shifted from wife to caregiver. They share daughters Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, and Heming Willis noted that it’s “scary” navigating life as a single parent for the time being.
“Bruce was my protector,” Heming Willis wrote in People’s excerpt, detailing everything she loved about her husband. “He always made me feel safe when things felt hard.”
Heming Willis wrote that “having to use the past tense” when talking about Willis is “what stops me in my tracks” frequently.
“What a heart-wrenching gut punch,” she added. “It’s a quiet ache I carry daily.”
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Heming Willis admittedly “likes control and predictability” so FTD — which, according to Mayo Clinic, leads to changes in personality, behavior and language — is hard for her to grasp.
“I know the details of your story are different, that your loved one is unique, that no two cases of FTD or dementia are alike,” she added. “I know that no two caregiving journeys are the same either. But what I also know is that we share similar emotions watching our loved ones fade in front of our eyes, a traumatic experience that leaves a hole in your heart.”
Heming Willis wrote that her husband is “still a part of the fabric of my being and my guiding light,” despite his illness.
“I use the values we shared and the things he taught me to continue to make the best decisions for him and our family on his behalf and make each day the best it can be,” she wrote. “I don’t always succeed, but I try. And I do so with my biggest supporter’s voice in my head: ‘You can do this, Emma,’ he tells me. ‘And it’s going to be OK.’
The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path will be released on Tuesday, September 9.
