Bruce Willis is unaware of his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis, according to his wife.
Emma Heming Willis opened up about the 70-year-old actor’s condition during an appearance on the ‘Conversations with Cam’ podcast, revealing that her husband has “never connected the dots” about his declining mental health.
Speaking candidly about the situation, Emma shared:
“I think that’s like the blessing and the curse of this, is that he never connected the dots that he had this disease, and I’m really happy about that. I’m really happy that he doesn’t know about it.”
The ‘Die Hard’ star has anosognosia, a condition Emma explained as “where your brain can’t identify what is happening to it.” People living with the condition “think this is their normal,” she noted.
Emma addressed common misconceptions about the condition:
“People think this might be denial, like they don’t want to go to the doctor because they’re like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine,’ actually, this is the anosognosia that comes into play. It’s not denial. It’s just that their brain is changing. This is a part of the disease.”
Despite the challenges, Emma shared that her husband is “still very much present in his body,” and the family has “progressed along with him” and “adapted along with him.”
When asked if the actor still recognizes his loved ones, Emma offered a touching response:
“When someone says to me ‘Does Bruce still know who you are?’ Yes he does. He has a way of connecting with me, our children that might not be the same as you would connect with your loved one, but it’s still very beautiful. It’s still very meaningful. It’s just different. You just learn how to adapt to it and meet them where they’re at.”