The wife of terminally ill Bruce Willis has named the first symptom that signaled his dementia: I would never have thought

Emma Heming Willis, the wife of Bruce Willis, the star of the movie "Die Hard," has named the first warning sign that indicated dementia in the actor. It turned out to be stuttering, which had been characteristic of the celebrity since childhood.

The world learned about his incurable disease in the spring of 2022, but the diagnosis was different then – a disorder that affects how a person communicates (aphasia). A year later, he was finally diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), an incurable disease that affects memory and behavior. Emma Heming Willis told Town & Country that this disease is often misdiagnosed, which happened to the actor himself.

"I say that LSD whispers, not screams. It's hard for me to say, 'This is where Bruce ended, and this is where his illness started to take over. He was diagnosed two years ago, but the year before that, we had a vague diagnosis of aphasia, which is a symptom of the disease but not the disease itself," the 46-year-old wife explained.

She said that poor pronunciation of words, namely stuttering, was the main symptom that could indicate the disease of 69-year-old Bruce Willis. However, she was able to disguise it because the celebrity had had speech problems since childhood.

"It all started with Bruce's speech. As a child, he stuttered a lot. He went to college, and there was a theater teacher who said: "I have something that will help you." In that class, Bruce realized that he could memorize a script and recite it without stuttering. This is what pushed him to acting. Bruce had always stuttered, but he hid it well. When his speech started to change, it seemed like it was just part of the stutter, that it was just Bruce. I would never have thought in a million years that it would turn out to be a form of dementia in someone so young," the woman admitted.

Emma Heming Willis added that her husband's dementia progressed from the temporal areas of the brain and gradually began to take away his ability to walk, think freely, and speak.

"The disease affects the frontal lobe and temporal lobes, so it can affect movement, behavior, and speech, and as it progresses, it can also spread. For Bruce, the disease started in the temporal lobes and then spread to the frontal lobe. The disease attacks and destroys a person's ability to walk, think, and make decisions," explained the wife of the "tough guy."

She also expressed a "cry of the soul" and said that she and her husband had completely different plans for life. However, now the whole family has to take care of the incurable Bruce Willis and find glimmers of light in everyday life.

"We had so many plans, so many wonderful things we wanted to do with our girls, so many things we wanted to experience together. You just tear that page out completely, and then how do you rewrite history? I'm learning how to take back control of the situation. It may not be the most beautiful story I could have come up with, but it has some glimmers of light. This diagnosis has given me a huge amount of strength and many wonderful things, and I'm trying to put them back into the pot so that other people know that they will be okay in time," the woman added.

After it became known that Bruce Willis was diagnosed, his family has been spending more and more time with the sick actor. His five children and ex-wife Demi Moore often post photos with the celebrity on social media and report on his health.

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