Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, speaks up about the decision to move the actor to his own home
Emma Heming Willis will not fight about what is best for her husband Bruce Willis’s well-being.
Speaking with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America. On Tuesday, Sept. 9, the author and caregiver advocate defended her family’s decision to relocate the actor to his own house throughout his dementia journey, which she discusses in her new book, The Unexpected Journey.
After Strahan mentioned that the choice had “kind of created a debate online,” Emma, 49, acknowledged she “knew it would.” But at the end of the day, although being “a hard decision” for the family, it “was the safest and best decision—not just for Bruce, but also for our two young girls.”
“And, you know, it’s not really up for debate,” she said. “I now know that Bruce always provides the greatest treatment. His needs are always satisfied, as are those of our two small girls. So I’m not going to vote on it.
During a recent interview with Diane Sawyer for the couple’s ABC News special, Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey, Emma said that Bruce, 70, now lives separately from his family for his treatment and safety.
And, despite receiving some criticism for the move, “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,” she told Strahan, 53, on GMA Tuesday.
“And I will argue that dementia manifests differently in each family. If you’ve seen one case of dementia, that’s it,” Emma says. “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.”
Emma’s “wakeup call” to modify her husband’s living circumstances came from a fact shared with her by his neurologist: “that sometimes caregivers die before their loved ones.”
“I believe it was my wake-up call to recognize that I needed help, and I’m not a failure because I needed it. It is alright for me to raise my hand.” “I didn’t realize that,” she explained. “I really needed permission for someone to tell me that it’s okay to get help.”
“That’s what I hope that this book does for caregivers: 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?” Emma added.
Emma told PEOPLE in a recent cover interview that her family’s choice to relocate Bruce into his own area “was the hardest thing,” saying that Bruce’s worsening frontotemporal dementia (FTD) sickness “requires a calm and serene atmosphere.”
The family’s “second home,” a one-story house nearby, is more suitable to Bruce’s special requirements—a peaceful, comfortable, and safe atmosphere with round-the-clock care—and has allowed their daughters Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, to be their high-spirited child selves, she added.
Emma is quick to realize how lucky they are to have the wherewithal to support the new living arrangement, and she is appreciative of what it has meant for the family.
“Everything just feels a lot calmer, more at ease now,” she told me.
The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path is now available wherever books are sold.