Emma Heming, the wife of Bruce Willis, has said the action star still lives a life of “love, connection, joy and happiness” following his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Heming said she wanted to debunk false narratives about how her husband is living, after she was “clickbaited” by a headline about her family.
FTD is an umbrella term for a group of dementias which mainly affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which are responsible for such things as personality, behaviour, language and speech, according to Dementia UK.
In a video on Instagram, she said: “The headline basically says there is no more joy in my husband.
“Now, I can just tell you, that is far from the truth.
“I need society – and whoever’s 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. Let’s pack it up. We’re — Nothing else to see here. We’re done.’ No. It is the complete opposite of that.”
She added: “There is grief and sadness. There’s all of that. But you start a new chapter.”
Heming said that chapter is filled “with love, it’s filled with connection, it’s filled with joy, it’s filled with happiness”.
“That’s where we are. So stop with these stupid headlines. These stupid clickbait-y things that freak people out. Stop doing that. There’s nothing to see here, ok?”
In a caption on the post, she added: “My experience is that two things can be true and exist at the same time. Grief and deep love. Sadness and deep connection. Trauma and resilience.
“I had to get out of my own way to get here but once I arrived, life really started to come together with meaning and I had a true sense of purpose. There is so much beauty and soulfulness in this story.”
It was first revealed in March 2022 that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects communication abilities.
Last year, Willis’s daughter Rumer provided an updated in which she explained he had received a “more specific” diagnosis of FTD.
Willis is best known for films such as Die Hard, The Sixth Sense and Pulp Fiction, but has stepped away from his acting career amid his health struggles.
The actor and Heming have been married for 15 years. He was previously married to Hollywood star Demi Moore.