Actor Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, posted a plea online over the weekend asking reporters to leave her husband alone following his recent frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.
Frontotemporal dementia typically starts with personality changes, including hyper-aggressive and hyper-sexual behavior, experts say, and then it progresses to memory loss. The disease is caused by atrophy of a person’s frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. There is no cure for the disease.
The message from Heming Willis comes after paparazzi tried to interact with the 67-year-old actor while he made a rare trip out in public to meet some friends for coffee.
“If you are someone who is looking after someone with dementia, you know how difficult and stressful it can be to get someone out into the world and to navigate them safely, even just to get a cup of coffee,” she said. “It’s clear that there’s still a lot of education that needs to be put forth. So this one is going out to the photographers and video people that are trying to get those exclusives of my husband out and about. Just keep your space.”
“I know this is your job, but maybe just keep your space,” she continued. “Please don’t be yelling at my husband, asking how he’s doing, whatever. The woo-hooing and the yippee-ki-yay’s — just don’t do it. Give him the space. Allow for our family or whoever’s with him that day to be able to get him from Point A to Point B safely. That’s my PSA.”
The family announced on February 16 that Willis had been diagnosed with the disease and that while the news was difficult, it was also “a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”
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“FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone,” the statement continued. “For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia, and because getting the diagnosis can take years, FTD is likely much more prevalent than we know. Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead. As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.”
Willis’ family shared a statement last year on social media announcing that he was stepping away from his acting career after he had been diagnosed at the time with aphasia. Aphasia, which typically manifests after a head injury or stroke, can also develop gradually as a result of other degenerative pathologies that impact the brain.