Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, is all too familiar with the harsh judgement that caregivers face.
Heming Willis recently spoke about the decision to place her husband in a second, “safer” home due to his continued health decline, which she announced in a heartbreakingly candid interview with Diane Sawyer.
“What I knew is that by sharing some of our intimate information that we would see these two camps, right? It would be people with an opinion versus people with an actual experience,” Heming Willis said in a video shared on her Instagram page on Saturday, days after the interview with Sawyer aired. “And it’s been a perfect example to see in the comments section.”
“That is what caregivers are up against,” she added. “Judgment from others and criticism from others.”
Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia, which affects the ability to communicate, in 2022. The actor was later diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, which can also create changes in communication, behavior and personality, the following year.
Heming Willis then read a passage aloud from her forthcoming book, called “The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path,” which comes out Sept. 9.
“Everyone will have an opinion, but you have to remind yourself that most don’t have the experience to back it up,” she read. “And if that’s the case, they shouldn’t offer their two cents about it, and you shouldn’t pay them any mind.”
“Even if someone is closely familiar with dementia or the condition you are caring for, they aren’t in your home,” Heming Willis added. “So they don’t know how your person is behaving or your family dynamics.”
In Heming Willis’ interview with Sawyer, she offered insight into the challenging decision to move the 70-year-old actor into a home with his caregivers for around-the-clock care.
“It was one of the hardest decisions that I’ve had to make so far,” she told Sawyer. “But I knew first and foremost, Bruce would want that for our daughters. He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.”
Willis and Heming Willis share two daughters: Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11. The Emmy winner also shares three daughters with his ex-wife, actor Demi Moore: Rumer, 37; Scout, 34; and Tallulah, 31.