Emma Heming Willis shares how her family has learned to adapt during the holidays amid her husband Bruce Willis’ battle with dementia.

“It’s joyful. It’s just different,” the British model, 47, told People in the 2025 ends well conference in Los Angeles on November 20. “Bruce loved Christmas and we love celebrating it with him. It just looks different, so we’ve adapted to that.”

In March 2022, the “Die Hard” star’s family announced that he was diagnosed with aphasia and would be retire from acting. His condition progressed to frontotemporal dementia the following year.

Emma Willis went on to tell People that the holidays can be difficult for families who have loved ones with dementia. Then he added that he thinks “it’s important to put ‘Die Hard’ because it’s a Christmas movie.”

“You have to learn, adapt and create new memories, incorporate the same traditions you had before,” he continues. “Life goes on. It just goes on.”

Noting that “dementia is difficult,” she declared, “there is still joy in it,” although she said things are not exactly the same.

“I think it’s important that we don’t paint such a negative picture around dementia,” he added. “We still laugh. There’s still joy. It just looks different.”

Bruce Willis, left, and his wife Emma Heming Willis met in 2007.
Bruce Willis, left, and his wife Emma Heming Willis met in 2007.

via News

The couple married in 2009 after two years of dating. They share two daughters: Mabel Ray Willis and Evelyn Penn Willis. Bruce Willis is also father to daughters Rumer Glenn Willis, Scout LaRue Willis, and Tallulah Belle Willis, whom he welcomed with his ex-wife Demi Moore.

Elsewhere in her chat with People, Emma Willis said her family life has been “very simple – in fact, it always has been.

“I think just being able to be present with him is the joy. Being able to be his wife with him. Those are the moments.”

Last week, Rumer Willis gave a separate update on his father’s well-being after being asked about him during an Instagram Q&A.

“People always ask me this question,” he said. “And I think it’s a little difficult to answer, because the truth is that anyone with FTD doesn’t do very well. But they do well in terms of someone who is dealing with frontotemporal dementia, you know what I mean?

“I’m so grateful that when I go there [to his separate home for dementia care] and give him a hug, whether he recognizes me or not, so that he can feel the love that I have given him and I can feel it back,” he added.