Emma Heming Willis Opens Up About Experiencing Grief During Holiday Season

Emma Heming Willis openly discussed how she is coping with grief during the holiday season while caring for her husband, Hollywood star Bruce Willis, 70, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023 after an aphasia diagnosis in 2022.

In a new blog post on her personal website titled “The Holidays Look Different Now,” Heming Willis said that when it comes to the holidays, they “carry memories of Bruce being at the center of it all.” 

“He loved this time of year — the energy, family time, the traditions,” she wrote. “He was the pancake maker, the get-out-in-the-snow-with-the-kids guy, the steady presence moving through the house as the day unfolded. There was comfort in the routine of knowing exactly how the day would go, especially since I’m a creature of habit.” 

Heming Willis added that “dementia doesn’t erase those memories. But it does create space between then and now,” and “that space can ache.” 

She continued: “Grief during the holidays can show up in unexpected ways. It can arrive while pulling decorations out of storage, wrapping gifts or hearing a familiar song. It can catch you off guard in the middle of a room full of people, or in the quiet moment when everyone else has gone to bed.” 

As for “wrestling with the holiday lights” or “taking on tasks that used to be his,” she admitted, “I find myself, harmlessly, cursing Bruce’s name,” not out of anger, but because “I miss the way he once led the holiday charge.”  

She added, “Yes, he taught me well, but I’m still allowed to feel annoyed that this is one more reminder of how things have changed.”

She went on: “If you’re feeling that mix of grief (and yes, annoyance), you’re not doing the holidays wrong. You’re responding honestly to a very real loss. You can miss what was and still show up for what is.” 

The Mayo Clinic says that FTD is “an umbrella term for a group of brain diseases that mainly affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. These areas of the brain are associated with personality, behavior and language.” FTD often begins between the ages of 40 and 65 and accounts for approximately 10 to 20 percent of dementia cases.  

In September, Heming Willis spoke to AARP about the state of Willis’ health. “It’s such a loaded question,” she said. “What I can say is that FTD is a really unkind form of dementia. They all are, right? There is no kind version of dementia.

“But FTD is the one that I know. There is no treatment; there is no cure. So he’s doing the best he can do, given the circumstances of this terrible disease,” she said. 

AARP has additional information on holiday challenges, including tips for navigating grief during this season and 11 tips caregivers can follow to make the season less stressful.