Emma Heming Willis has offered a poignant insight into how her family, including husband Bruce Willis, will celebrate the holidays following his dementia diagnosis.
Adapting Family Traditions with Joy
The model and caregiver explained that while their celebrations look different now, they remain a source of happiness. Bruce Willis, the 70-year-old Die Hard star, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023, a year after his family announced he was stepping away from acting due to aphasia.
"It's joyous. It's just different," Heming Willis told People magazine in an interview published on Thursday 27 November 2025. "Bruce loved Christmas and we love celebrating it with him. It just looks different, so we've kind of adapted to that."
She emphasised the importance of creating new memories while honouring past traditions, stating that life continues despite the challenges of dementia. "You have to learn and adapt and make new memories, bring in the same traditions that you had before," she added. "Life goes on. It just goes on. Dementia is hard, but there is still joy in it."
Addressing Criticism and Impossible Decisions
Her heartfelt comments come just a week after she directly addressed critics of her family's care decisions for the actor. At the End Well 2025 conference in Los Angeles, an event focused on end-of-life care, she had a blunt two-word response for the trolls: "F*** em! As Bruce would say."
During a panel discussion with actor Yvette Nicole Brown, who is also a caregiver for her father, Heming Willis became emotional while explaining the difficult choices she has faced. The criticism had emerged earlier this year when she made the decision to move Willis out of their family home due to the degenerative nature of his condition.
"This is not how I envisioned our life," she said through tears. "So I had to make the best and safest decision for our family. And I knew, by being honest and open about it, that it would be met with a lot of judgment."
Yvette Nicole Brown showed strong support for her fellow caregiver, telling the audience that every caregiving situation is unique, especially with dementia. "We all are doing our best and making the best decisions for your family," Brown said.
Finding Joy in a New Reality
Despite the pain and public scrutiny, Emma Heming Willis maintains a powerful and positive outlook for the sake of their two daughters, Mabel Ray, 13, and Evelyn Penn, 11. She is determined to show that their family life, though altered, is still filled with love and laughter.
"I think it's important that we don't paint such a negative picture around dementia," she asserted. "We are still laughing. There is still joy. It just looks different." Her message is one of resilience, urging a more nuanced understanding of what it means to live with and care for a loved one with a progressive condition like frontotemporal dementia.
