Emma Heming Willis Reveals Their Next Chapter as Bruce Willis Faces Dementia

Hollywood turned out for Bruce Willis as wife Emma Heming Willis and ex-wife Demi Moore joined forces to stage a star-charged benefit for the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration. Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, and Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan led the A-list crowd.

Bruce Willis just got the kind of tribute that feels both deeply personal and very Hollywood: a live-music fundraiser thrown by his wife Emma Heming Willis and his ex-wife Demi Moore, packed with longtime friends who actually showed up. It was a night built around what he loves — family, music, and the people who have known him forever — and it doubled as a push to raise money and awareness for the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration.

The event

Emma and Demi teamed up to host a charity concert for AFTD, and the guest list was a time capsule of Willis-era friendships: Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Bacon with Kyra Sedgwick, Michael J. Fox with Tracy Pollan, and more. Moore posted photos afterward, framing it as a celebration of Bruce and thanking Emma for pulling everyone together.

Before the show, Emma told People that Bruce would have loved the setup. Live music was his thing, and she suspected that if he could have been there, he would have jumped up with his harmonica. During the event itself — part of the Soho Sessions series — she addressed the crowd, thanked them for showing up to support FTD awareness, and said Bruce was there in spirit.

For the record, he did not attend. Around the same time, RadarOnline ran photos of a rare public outing for Willis in Los Angeles, but the concert belonged to friends and family rallying on his behalf.

The family picture

Willis and Demi Moore were married from 1987 to 2000 and share three daughters: Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah. He married Emma in 2009; they have two daughters together, Mabel and Evelyn. The fact that Emma and Demi co-hosted this thing tells you a lot about how this blended family works — and how unified they are around his care.

Emma on the hard call nobody wants to make

In a recent ABC News interview, Emma said she made one of the toughest decisions of her life: moving Bruce into a nearby second home so he could receive full-time care. She framed it as a choice she believed he would have made for their kids — keeping the primary family home centered on their needs, not his medical routine. She later told The Sunday Times that as hard as it was, it was right for him, the girls, and for her — because it let her be his wife again, not just his caregiver.

Emma also gave a health update: overall, he is physically in solid shape, but his brain is failing him. His language is slipping, and the family has adapted with new ways to communicate.

When Willis was first diagnosed, Emma says they were basically handed nothing — no roadmap, no real support. That gap is one reason this fundraiser mattered.

What FTD is, in plain English

Frontotemporal dementia — sometimes called Pick's disease — is the most common dementia for people under 60, per AFTD. Symptoms can crawl or sprint, progressing over two years or stretching across two decades. Average life expectancy after symptoms start is typically 7 to 13 years. It often starts subtly, which is why early detection is tough. Emma has described those first signs in Bruce as changes in language long before anyone said the word dementia.

"FTD whispers, it doesn’t shout."

Bruce Willis: the diagnosis and the updates

• March 2022: The family announces Willis has aphasia, affecting his ability to communicate, and that he is stepping away from acting because of its impact on his cognition.
• February 2023: The diagnosis is refined to frontotemporal dementia. The family explains that communication issues are only one part of what he is facing, but having a clear name for it is, at least, an answer.
• September 2023: Emma appears on TODAY for World FTD Awareness Week, talking about caregiving and calling dementia hard on everyone. Asked if Bruce understands his diagnosis, she says it is tough to know.
• November 2023: Tallulah Willis tells Drew Barrymore her dad’s condition is really aggressive but adds that, at his core, he is still the same — which, given everything, is the best outcome they can hope for.
• March 19, 2024: Demi Moore posts a birthday photo with Bruce for his 69th and writes that the family loves him and is grateful for him. Rumer shares her own tribute, calling him funny, tender, silly, talented, and magical.
• September 18, 2024: Tallulah returns to TODAY and says he is stable. There are hard days, but there is a lot of love.
• October 2024: Emma tells Town & Country that the earliest clue was a shift in his language. She says it is hard to pinpoint where Bruce ends and the disease begins, because the early stages are quiet.
• December 5, 2024: Demi tells CNN he is in a very stable place and emphasizes meeting him where he is — advice that tends to be essential for families navigating FTD.
• August 2025: Emma shares that Bruce is in great physical health overall, but his brain is failing him. She confirms she moved him to a nearby second home for round-the-clock care.
• November 2025: Emma and Demi co-host the AFTD benefit at Soho Sessions to celebrate Bruce with his favorite things: music, family, and friends.

Bottom line

This was not a somber memorial; it was a living tribute. Bruce Willis was not on stage, but the setlist and the people in the room were straight out of his life — and the money went to the place that might help the next family get the support his did not have at the start. If you know anything about Willis, the idea that he would have tried to crash the band with a harmonica feels exactly right.