Photo Credit: Emma Heming Willis/InstgramAs you all might know, blockbusting superstar Bruce Willis is now 2 years into having dementia, and that was a year after first being diagnosed with aphasia which affects his language and speech. Dealing with such as a significant other can be quite challenging which is why when his wife Emma Heming Willis shared in a Diane Sawyer interview that she had moved him into a separate home to receive the appropriate level of care she was met with a fire and brimstone reaction from fans of his.
One user on X wrote, “[This is] some next level BS in my mind that may be crossing the line into evil. His wife and daughters are living a pampered lifestyle his life’s work has provided them and they have the audacity to move him into a separate home for “care.” A man who provided/provides for his family shouldn’t be forced out of his home to be cared for by strangers when his wife and kids are fully capable of doing so.” “ Disgusting,” wrote another. “This man not only has a wife, he also has three daughters. This reinforces the fact that women love men CONDITIONALLY. As long as men have something to offer and provide. Now that Bruce is losing his cognitive ability, he is discarded.” One man chimed in adding “ Bruce Willis’ Wife Says They Are Now Living Separately Amid Dementia because she’s a piece of shit who won’t stand by her man when he needs it.” And lastly someone made an interesting point. “ Does anyone else get an odd feeling about Bruce Willis’ wife putting so much out there about “how he’s doing”? Tonight: an ABC special. Wasn’t there a special or two before that? Isn’t there a book? This seems off to me, a bit more about capitalism than caretaking.”
While talking about various health issues with the public can be inspiring to others, I did find the conversation with Diane Sawyer to be interesting, especially with sharing with the world that he’s been moved into a new home. One of the advantages of social media is to be able to share your own news without having to go to the likes of Diane Sawyer who has been named as culprit number one in making celebrities feel worse if not outright embarrassing them to their face. Perhaps Sawyer has turned a new leaf. But I know she would not be my first choice to talk to about such things.
The interview was a full ABC News special titled, Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey and was done for the explicit purpose of explaining why he had been moved into a separate home. On Instagram Emma said she wanted to give the special a few days to sort land and breathe“ before addressing the public’s response.
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“I think that they did a beautiful job with amplifying FTD awareness, as well as shining a spotlight onto caregivers,” she said about the criticism in an Instagram post. “What I knew is that by sharing some of our intimate information that we would see these two camps. It would be people with an opinion versus people with an actual experience.” She said she expected that some “people with an opinion” would be in the comment sections, “quick” to judge the caregiver. “This is what caregivers are up against. Judgement from others,” she added. And she ended her video with a quote from her new book, The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path where she said “Nothing changes an opinion quite as powerfully as when you have an experience. Even if someone is closely familiar with dementia or the condition you are caring for, they aren’t in your home, so they don’t know how your person is behaving or your family dynamics.”
While this might be a bit out of the ordinary for most people, some of us don’t shy away from confrontation and criticism and that could be what type of person she is. To be honest, the vast majority of the public isn’t knowledgeable on what it takes to take care of a loved one in their home. It isn’t one thing regularly discussed and maybe she has a perspective that we can learn from.
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