Bruce Willis' wife says that it's 'hard to know' if he's aware of his condition after being diagnosed with dementia
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- Emma Heming Willis gave an update on her husband Bruce Willis in a new interview.
- Heming Willis said it's unclear whether Willis realizes he has dementia.
- Willis' family announced his aphasia diagnosis in March 2022 and his frontotemporal dementia in February.
Bruce Willis' wife Emma Heming Willis said that it's "hard to know" if her husband is aware of his condition after he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
Heming Willis appeared on "Today" to speak about her husband's condition. Accompanied by Susan Dickinson, the CEO of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, the interview coincided with World Frontotemporal Dementia Awareness Week.
In the interview, Heming Willis said that she's uncertain if Willis is aware of his dementia.
Dickinson said the frontal lobe, one of the locations in the brain where FTD can begin, controls self-insight. Some people with FTD, she said, retain an understanding that "they themselves have changed," while others lose it early in the disease's progression.
Frontotemporal dementia occurs at younger ages than other types of dementia, Insider previously reported, and is the most common form of dementia for those under 60. According to the Mayo Clinic, frontotemporal dementia symptoms can vary from person to person, but can include changes in personality and behavior, language problems, and in some cases, motor problems.
Dickinson said on "Today" that FTD "can affect speech, behaviors, personality, and what we call executive functioning." Many are misdiagnosed with diseases like Alzheimer's before they're given an FTD diagnosis, Dickinson said, due to overlapping symptoms.
Willis' family announced his diagnosis in February, after previously announcing in March 2022 that he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a language and communication disorder, and would be "stepping away" from acting as a result.
"Dementia is hard," Heming Willis said on "Today." "It's hard on the person diagnosed, it's hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our girls. When they say this is a family disease, it really is."