Bruce Willis' wife responds to criticisms of his care: 'Not up for a debate'
Emma Heming Willis is speaking out about caregiving and responding to critics of the care she has provided for her husband, "Die Hard" actor Bruce Willis, amid his battle with dementia.
Heming Willis said she received criticism from strangers online after she revealed in an interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer in August that Willis, 70, lives in a home separate from herself and their two young daughters where he is cared for 24/7 by a team of professional caregivers.
"It was a hard decision for us, but that was the safest and best decision, not just for Bruce, but also for our two young girls," Heming Willis said Tuesday in an interview with "Good Morning America" co-anchor Michael Strahan about her new book, "The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path."
"It's really not up for a debate," she continued. "Now I know that Bruce has the best care 100% of the time. His needs are met 100% of the time, as well as our two young daughters, so I'm not going to take a vote on that."
Willis' family shared publicly in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a type of dementia that impacts one's personality and may cause behavioral changes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The actor has since lost much of his ability to communicate, according to Heming Willis, 49, who has been by her husband's side since his diagnosis.
Heming Willis said she anticipated that speaking about her family's living situation would invite criticism, which motivated her to share it publicly.
"I knew it would, which is why I shed the light on that, because I feel like caregivers are so judged, and it just goes to show that people sometimes just have an opinion versus really having the experience, and I'll say that dementia plays out differently in every household. If you've seen one case of dementia, it is one case of dementia. So you have to do what is right for your family and what is going to keep your loved one safe, as well as your young children," she said.
In addition to his two daughters with Heming Willis, who are 13 and 11, Willis is also a father to three older daughters -- Tallulah, Scout and Rumer -- with his ex-wife, actress Demi Moore.
Heming Willis said that for her, it was her husband's neurologist who delivered what she described as a "wake up call" to her that she needed to get more caregiving support.
She added that when Willis was first diagnosed, the family was given no resources, which left Heming Willis to provide much of the support to Willis on her own.
"Bruce's neurologist shared a statistic that sometimes caregivers die before their loved one," Heming Willis said. "That was my wake up call to realize that I need to get help, and I'm not a failure because I need help. It's OK for me to raise my hand."
She continued, "I didn't realize that. I really needed permission for someone to tell me that it's OK to get help. And that's what I hope that this book does for caregivers, that it just gives them the permission to be able to care for themselves, because if they don't, how will they be able to show up and continue to care for the person that they love?"
Heming Willis' book, "The Unexpected Journey," is on sale now.
