Bruce Willis and his wife, Emma Heming, communicate via their “own language” as he battles frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Heming cried as she discussed their current dynamic with the Sunday Times in an interview published Saturday.
“Bruce and I now have our own language, our own way to be with each other,” she explained. “It’s just about sitting with him, walking with him, listening to him as he tries to verbalize in his own language.”
The 47-year-old said she is intentional about “hearing him [and] validating him.”
Heming went on to describe how Willis’ personality changed months ahead of his diagnosis with FTD, which is characterized by trouble using and understanding written and spoken language.
“It just wasn’t Bruce,” she recalled. “It just wasn’t the man that I married. It was like waking up with someone else.”
Additionally, the former model defended her decision to move Willis, 70, into a separate home across the street from herself and their two kids — Evelyn, 13, and Mabel, 11.
“It’s made such a difference for more friends and family to have their own experience with him without it being my home, without me hovering or my anxiety of how to manage the guest and their expectations, and then have to see their reactions,” she shared with the outlet.
Heming went on to describe how her and Bruce’s daughters’ relationships with the “Die Hard” star have shifted since his relocation.
“The girls don’t need him to be this or do that,” she explained. “They have really adapted to his disease and they know how to move around him. It’s beautiful, but it’s hard for them. They miss him.”
In her new book, “The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path,” Heming revealed how she told Evelyn and Mabel that their father was moving out of their home.
“We’ve come to a point in Daddy’s disease where the care he requires is changing,” she revealed. “It has to be more tailored to his every need.’
“Daddy would want you to have playdates, sleepovers, and more freedom than you’ve been able to have here,” she added at the time. “That would make him so happy.”
Heming wrote that although this was the right decision for Bruce, it was “painful” for her.
“After all, this is my husband, and having him in another home was not part of the future we’d mapped out together,” she noted. “You really can’t dream this stuff up.”
The couple have been married since 2009 and renewed their wedding vows 10 years after their Turks and Caicos nuptials.
Willis was previously married to Demi Moore, with whom he shares daughters Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31.