Bruce Willis’ daughters Mabel and Evelyn’s reaction to his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis was revealed in the special Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey.
Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, were brought up in conversation between Emma Heming Willis and Diane Sawyer during the hour-long special, which aired on Tuesday, August 26. Emma, 47, was asked how long she took to tell her kids about Bruce’s FTD diagnosis.
“Pretty quickly I told them. I have always been very open with the girls,” she revealed. “I never wanted them to think that he wasn’t paying attention to them. What I learned is that when you give them the information, you wait to hear what the questions might be and they really didn’t have questions about it. I think there was a sense of relief for all of us that, like, ‘OK, now we get it and now we understand.’”
Emma and the girls came up with the acronym, Fantastic Turtles Dancing in Bruce’s Head, to help remind them of the name of Bruce’s condition.
“The girls put that acronym together so that we could remember the way the letters go,” she explained.
Bruce, 70, also shares daughters Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31, with ex-wife Demi Moore.
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In addition to speaking about Bruce’s kids, Emma, who tied the knot with the actor in 2007, opened up about when his health struggles became present.
“For someone who is very talkative and very engaged, he was just a little more quiet,” Emma said. “And when the family would get together, he would kind of just melt a little bit.”
Sawyer added in a voiceover that Bruce’s family noticed he was becoming “less engaged in their lives” and that a “childhood stutter” had “reappeared.”
“It felt a little removed, very cold, not like Bruce, who was very warm and affectionate,” Emma explained. “To go in the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary.”
While Emma shared that Bruce is “still very mobile” and “in really great health overall,” communication for the actor is a struggle.
“It’s just his brain that is failing him … The language is going, and we’ve learned to adapt, and we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different way,” she said.
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Emma also noted that when Bruce spends time with his girls, they notice some “moments” of his old self.
“He has such a hearty laugh. And, you know, sometimes you’ll see that twinkle in his eye, or that smirk, and, you know, I just get transported,” she reflected. “And it’s just hard to see, because as quickly as those moments appear, then it goes. It’s hard, but I’m grateful. I’m grateful that my husband is still very much here.”
In March 2022, Bruce was diagnosed with a language disorder called aphasia. Nearly one year later, the actor’s family revealed that his condition progressed to frontotemporal dementia, which can affect a person’s personality, behavior and language.
“Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” his family shared in a statement in February 2023.
