Bruce Willis and his wife, Emma Heming, communicate via “their language” when fighting frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Heming cried when he discussed the current dynamics with the Sunday Times in an interview published Saturday.
“Bruce and I now have our own language, our own unique way of being together,” she explained. “It’s just sitting with him, walking with him, listening to him as he tries to put it into words in his own language.”
The 47-year-old said “I intend to hear him (and verify him).”
Heming went on to explain how Willis’ personality changed the months prior to his diagnosis of FTD.
“It wasn’t the blues,” she recalls. “It wasn’t a man I got married. It was like waking up to someone else.”
Additionally, the previous model defended her decision to move Willis, 70, to another house across the street from herself and her two children, 13, Mabel (11).
“To have more friends and family have their own experiences with him, without worrying about how to manage my hovering and guests and their expectations, not at my home, makes such a difference and then see their reaction,” she shared with the outlet.
Hemming went on to explain how her relationship with Bruce’s daughter, “Die Hard” star, has changed since his move.
“The girl doesn’t need him to be this or he doesn’t have to,” she explained. “They really adapt to his illness and they know how to move around him. It’s beautiful, but it’s difficult for them. They miss him.”
In her new book, “Unexpected Journey: Finding Yourself in the Path of Strength, Hope, and Care,” Heming reveals how she told her father and Mabel that her father had moved out of the house.
“We’ve come to the point of Daddy’s illness, where the care he needs is changing,” she revealed. “It has to be adjusted according to all his needs.”
“Daddy would want you to have more playdate, sleepover and freedom than you’re here,” she added at the time. “It would make him very happy.”
Heming wrote that this was the right decision for Bruce, but it was “painful” for her.
“After all, this was my husband and putting him in another house wasn’t part of the future we mapped together,” she pointed out. “You can’t really dream of something like this.”
The couple have been married since 2009 and renewed their wedding vows 10 years later, with Turkish and Caicos’ fiance.
Willis was previously married to Demi Moore, who shared daughters, Rumer, 37, Scout, 34 and 31.
