Bruce Willis has been pictured for the first time since his wife Emma Heming gave a heartbreaking update on his ongoing battle with dementia.
Bruce Willis in Los Angeles
The Hollywood icon, 68, was seen in the passenger seat of a car in Los Angeles, last week Monday – the same day that Emma, 45, revealed it’s ‘hard to know’ if he is even aware of what is happening to him health-wise.
Sporting a quilted navy jacket and a matching navy hat, the actor was seen sitting with the passenger window down as he was driven around his home town in what has become an increasingly rare public outing amid his ongoing health struggles.
In February of this year, Bruce’s family announced that he had been diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) – an uncommon form of dementia that causes a deterioration in behaviour, personality and language.
Emma fought back tears while she opened up about how she and her two daughters with the actor are coping with the ‘grief and the sadness’ of watching the actor’s health decline in an interview on the Today show.
‘What I’m learning is that dementia is hard,’ she said, during an appearance at the show’s New York studio.
‘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.
‘And when they say that this is a family disease, it really is.’
Bruce’s wife explains illness to children
When asked how she went about explaining his illness to their children, she said: ‘I think it’s always been… we’re a very honest and open household.
‘And, the most important thing was to be able for us to say what the disease was, explain what it is because when you know what the disease is from a medical standpoint it sort of all makes sense.
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‘So it was important that we let them know what it is because, you know, I don’t want there to be any stigma or shame attached to their dad’s diagnosis, or for any form of dementia.’
When asked by host Hoda Kotb if he is aware of what is happening to him, Emma paused and revealed: ‘Hard to know’.
But despite the difficulty of caring for her husband, she said receiving a diagnosis has made life ‘easier’.
‘I think it was the blessing and the curse. You know, to sort of finally understand what was happening so that I can be into the acceptance of what is.
‘It doesn’t make it any less painful, but just being in the acceptance and just being in the know of what is happening to Bruce just makes it a little bit easier.’
