It’s a happy birthday to Bruce Willis, who turns 68 today. But while the occasion is joyous, his deteriorating condition from dementia has been hard on his family, Emma Willis Heming said in an Instagram message today.
Last month it was revealed that Willis has frontotemporal dementia (FTD), an increasingly debilitating form of the illness.
To relieve some of the stress, Emma has been using her Instagram platform to keep fans updated on the Die Hard actor’s condition. But today she vented her own emotional state.
“So today is my husband’s birthday. I have started the morning by crying, as you can see by my swollen eyes and snotty nose.”
She admitted that putting on a brave face in the ensuing months since Willis’s diagnosis has been a strain.
“I just think it’s important that you see all sides of this,” she said. “I always get this message, or people always tell me that ‘Oh, you’re so strong, I don’t know how you do it.’ I’m not given a choice. I wish I was. But I’m also raising two kids in this, so sometimes in our lives, we have to put our big girl panties on and get to it, and that’s what I’m doing. But I do have times of sadness every day, grief every day, and I’m really feeling it today on his birthday.”
Emma said her emotions swelled while she was putting together an Instagram reel celebrating her husband’s birthday.
“I don’t know why I do that to myself because the videos are like a knife in my heart,” she admitted to fans. “But as much as I do it for myself, I do it for you because I know how much you love my husband — don’t cry, Emma — but it means so much to me, so thank you.”