Originally appeared on E! Online
Make no mistake: Bruce Willis' life is full of joy, his wife says.
Emma Heming Willis is setting the record straight about the "Die Hard" actor after reading what she called a "clickbait" article about the 68-year-old, who has been battling frontotemporal dementia for over a year.
"The headline basically says there is no more joy in my husband," Emma Heming Willis said in a video posted on her Instagram March 3. "Now, I can just tell you, that is far from the truth."
Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.
The 45-year-old continued, "Stop scaring people to think that once they get a diagnosis of some kind of neurocognitive disease that, 'That's it. It's over. Let's pack it up. Nothing else to see here. We're done.' No, it's the complete opposite of that."
Bruce Willis' family—Emma Heming Willis and their daughters Mabel Willis, 11, and Evelyn Willis, 9, and his ex-wife Demi Moore and their kids Rumer Willis, 35, Scout Willis, 32, and Tallulah Willis, 30—announced in February 2023 that the actor had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Almost a year prior, they had revealed that he was battling aphasia, which also affects cognitive abilities, and was stepping away from acting.
In her Instagram post, Emma Heming Willis reflected on how the actor's health battle has affected him and his loved ones.
"One hundred percent, there is grief and sadness. There is all of that. But you start a new chapter and that chapter is filled," she said. "It's filled with love. It's filled with connection. It's filled with joy. It's filled with happiness. That's where we are."
In another video, Emma Heming Willis added, "I'm not saying that dementia is rainbows and unicorns. It is not. But there is also another side of it that is so beautiful."
Bruce Willis' loved ones have rallied behind him and have occasionally shared photos of him at joyful family gatherings, past and present, most recently Tallulah Willis' birthday in February.
And the family grew two months after his dementia diagnosis was revealed. The actor became a grandfather when his eldest daughter Rumer Willis gave birth to her first baby, Louetta Isley Thomas, whose name was inspired by Bruce Willis and the House Bunny star's mutual favorite singers.
