Bruce Willis’ wife admits his initial dementia signs were ignored

Bruce Willis’ dementia symptoms initially went overlooked.

His wife, Emma Heming Willis revealed how the Die Hard star’s early signs of dementia were dismissed under the assumption of his childhood stutter returning.

“Bruce has always had a stutter, but he has been good at covering it up,” the 46-year-old told Town & Country about the initial signs of the actor’s frontotemporal dementia.

She noted how Bruce’s dementia symptoms “started with language” adding, “For Bruce, it started in his temporal lobes and then has spread to the frontal part of his brain. It attacks and destroys a person’s ability to walk, think, make decisions.”

“As his language started changing, it [seemed like it] was just a part of a stutter, it was just Bruce,” she further explained.

“Never in a million years would I think it would be a form of dementia for someone so young,” Emma expressed.

“I say that FTD (Frontotemporal dementia) whispers, it doesn’t shout. It’s hard for me to say, ‘This is where Bruce ended, and this is where his disease started to take over.’ He was diagnosed two years ago, but a year prior, we had a loose diagnosis of aphasia, which is a symptom of a disease but is not the disease,” Emma Heming Willis detailed on what its like to see Bruce Willis suffer from the ailment.