Emma Heming Willis is calling out a "clickbait headline" that described her husband, Bruce Willis, as having “no more joy,” saying that such a claim is "far from the truth" and to “stop scaring people.”
The famed "Die Hard" actor stepped away from acting in March 2022 after he was diagnosed with aphasia that impacted his cognitive abilities. His family announced in February 2023 that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
Heming Willis said in a video on Instagram on Sunday that she was “triggered” after coming across a clickbait headline that “basically says there is no more joy in my husband.”
“I can just tell you, that is far from the truth,” she said. “A hundred percent, there is grief and sadness, there’s all of that. But you start a new chapter ... it’s filled with love, it’s filled with connection, it’s filled with joy, it’s filled with happiness.”
Though she did not share which publication ran the headline, she said: “I need society and whoever is writing these stupid headlines to stop scaring people, stop scaring people to think that once they get a diagnosis of some kind of neurocognitive disease, that that’s it, it’s over.”
In her caption, she said: "There is so much beauty and soulfulness in this story," adding, "People that have not taken the time to properly educate themselves on any kind of neurocognitive disease."
Frontotemporal dementia, known as FTD, is an “umbrella term” for a group of brain disorders that affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain and are generally associated with personality, behavior and language, according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms range from dramatic changes in personality to losing language ability.
Although there is no cure for FTD, medications can improve quality of life, according to the National Institute on Aging.
Heming Willis opened up on NBC’s “TODAY” show last fall about how her family was handling Willis’ diagnosis.
“What I’m learning is that dementia is hard. It’s hard on the person diagnosed, it’s also hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce, or myself or our girls,” she said at the time.
The couple have two young daughters. Bruce Willis, 68, has three adult daughters with his first wife, Demi Moore.