“This isn’t the Oscars, honey! We’re not changing for the after party!”
Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, is sharing a “painful” conversation she had with her daughters.
The 47-year-old former model, who shares two daughters — Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11 — with the actor, released her new book, “The Unexpected Journey,” on Sept. 9, according to her official website.
At one point in the book, she opens up about explaining to Mabel and Evelyn the reasoning behind their father’s recent move into a second home.
“‘We’ve come to a point in Daddy’s disease where the care he requires is changing. It has to be more tailored to his every need,’ I told them,” Heming Willis wrote in the book, according to Page Six.
“Daddy would want you to have playdates, sleepovers, and more freedom than you’ve been able to have here. That would make him so happy,” she added.
Willis retired from acting in 2022 after his family announced he was diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that makes it difficult to communicate, understand, read and write, per the Cleveland Clinic.
The “Pulp Fiction” actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) the following year.
According to the Mayo Clinic, FTD “is an umbrella term for a group of brain diseases that mainly affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain,” which are associated with personality, behavior and language.
Heming Willis’ book comes two weeks after her interview with Diane Sawyer, where she revealed that she made the “hard decision” to move her husband into a second home as his dementia progresses.
At the time, she described it as a decision rooted in what Willis would want for his two daughters.
“Bruce would want that for our daughters,” Heming Willis said in the interview. “He would want them to be in a home that was more tailored to their needs, not his needs.”
She further clarified that the second home isn’t far from where she lives with her daughters and that they still get to spend breakfast and dinner with their father.
Bruce Willis’ wife says daughters still get plenty of “Daddy” time
In her new book, Heming Willis reveals that being married but living separately is just as hard for her as it was for her daughters.
“It’s still painful for me,” writes in the book, per Page Six. “After all, this is my husband, and having him in another home was not part of the future we’d mapped out together. You really can’t dream this stuff up.”
She went on to clarify that her daughters still see their father often, are allowed to “stay with him anytime they wanted” and are allowed to “keep personal things” at his house to make it feel more like home.
But while Mabel and Evelyn understand that the move is for their father’s “overall well-being and safety,” Heming Willis admits that it’s still “a painful time for all.”
Bruce and Emma Heming Willis met in 2007 and tied the knot in 2009 before starting a family together in 2012, according to People. Their second daughter followed in 2014.
In October, Heming Willis opened up about how she told their daughters about Willis’ declining health.
“I’ve never tried to sugarcoat anything for them,” she said in an interview with Town & Country, published on Oct. 29. “They’ve grown up with Bruce declining over the years. I’m not trying to shield them from it.”
“If children ask questions, they’re ready to know the answer,” she added of her therapist’s advice. “If we could see that Bruce was struggling, I would address it with the kids so they could understand.”
But there is one thing she has yet to reveal to her daughters about their father’s disease.
“Obviously, I don’t like to speak about the terminal side of this with them, nor have they asked,” she said, adding that the disease is “chronic, progressive, and terminal.”
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In addition to Evelyn and Mabel, Willis also shares three daughters — Rumer Willis, 37, Scout Willis, 34, and Tallulah Willis, 31 — with ex-wife Demi Moore, per People.
