Yahoo Sports Emma Heming Willis Says Her Family Won’t Lose Hope For A Bruce Willis Cure
Emma Heming Willis has told her online followers that a clinical trial searching for a cure for frontotemporal dementia – a debilitating brain disease affecting her husband, Bruce Willis – has ended.
Bruce Willis retired from acting at age 68 earlier this year because of the disease’s progress.
More from Deadline
Instagram Down: Social Media Platform Restored After Suffering Outage Worldwide
Linda Yaccarino Shares Reaction To Instagram's Twitter Competitor
“Yesterday I read that Wave Life Sciences ended their clinical trial that could potentially treat frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Where I’m not sure it could have helped us over here, it doesn’t really matter, it still feels like a gut punch,” she wrote. She used a photo on the post of her daughters, Evelyn and Mabel, whom she shares with her husband.
“But I always have to look at the silver linings—they are trying. So I want to say thank you to Wave Life Sciences also to Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and AFTD who played an active role through the Treat FTD Fund program,” Emma said.
She added: “Please keep that momentum going, build on the learnings/findings, and don’t give up on this loving community. Our family will continue to keep the faith and never lose hope.”
On Wednesday, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s 29-year-old daughter, Tallulah Willis, wrote about the first time she realized something was wrong with her father in an essay for Vogue.
“My family announced in early 2022 that Bruce Willis was suffering from aphasia, a brain-mediated inability to speak or to understand speech, and we learned earlier this year that that symptom was a feature of frontotemporal dementia, a progressive neurological disorder that chips away at his cognition and behavior day by day,” Tallulah Willis wrote.
She said that she suspected a potential illness “for a long time.”
“It started out with a kind of vague unresponsiveness, which the family chalked up to Hollywood hearing loss: ‘Speak up! ‘Die Hard’ messed with Dad’s ears.’” she wrote. “Later that unresponsiveness broadened, and I sometimes took it personally. He had had two babies with my stepmother, Emma Heming Willis, and I thought he’d lost interest in me.”
Later, when she realized it wasn’t about her, she still suffered. She related a breakdown at a 2021 wedding.
“Suddenly I realized that I would never get that moment, my dad speaking about me in adulthood at my wedding. It was devastating,” she recalled. “I left the dinner table, stepped outside, and wept in the bushes.”
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
