Bruce Willis’ family share poignant messages about dads ‘living with disability or disease’

Bruce Willis’ family celebrated him on Father’s Day, while acknowledging holidays can feel “hard” as he lives with dementia. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images via CNN Newsource

Bruce Willis’ family celebrated him on Father’s Day, while acknowledging holidays can feel “hard” as he lives with dementia.

“Happy Father’s Day to all the dads living with disability or disease, showing up in the ways they can and to the children who show up for them,” Wills’ wife, Emma Hemming, wrote in a post on Instagram. “What Bruce teaches our girls goes far beyond words. Resilience, unconditional love, and the quiet strength in simply being present.”

“Love deepens. It adapts. It stays, even when everything else changes. But to be fair to myself, these symbolic days stir up a lot,” she continued. “I’m profoundly sad today. I wish, with every cell in my body, that things could be different for him and lighter for our family.”

Hemming shares two daughters Willis. He is also the father of three adult daughters from his previous marriage to Demi Moore.

In 2022, it was announced that Willis would be stepping away from his decades-long Hollywood career due to cognitive issues after being diagnosed with aphasia, a brain disorder affecting communication. The following year, his family updated his diagnosis to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a progressive brain condition.

Wills’ eldest daughter, Rumer Willis, shared several photos of her dad from over the years in a separate post on Sunday.

“Today is hard, I feel a deep ache in my chest to talk to you and tell you everything I’m doing and what’s going on in my life. To hug you and ask you about life and your stories and struggles and successes. I wish I asked you more questions while you could still tell me about it all. But I know you wouldn’t want me to be sad today so I’ll try to just be grateful reminding myself how lucky I am that you’re my dad and that you’re still with me and I can still hold you and hug you and kiss your cheek and rub your head I can tell you stories,” she wrote. “Sending love to all those who are in the boat with me.”

Hemming, too, ended her message with positivity.

“As they say in our FTD community, ‘It is what it is.’ And while that might sound dismissive, to me, it’s not. It grounds me. It helps me return to the acceptance of what is and not fight this every step of the way like I used to,” Hemming wrote. “Today, let’s celebrate the badass dads, those who are here, and those we carry with us. Onward.”

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN