Bruce Willis’ wife shares emotional video for his birthday

Emma Heming-Willis has shared an emotional video for her husband birthday, with a candid message about coping with his illness.

Bruce Willis turned 68 on Sunday (local time) and his wife shared the process of making an emotional video for him with years of footage throughout their marriage.

Last year, Willis’ family members shared he was diagnosed with aphasia. In February this year, they said his illness had progressed and he has now been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia – a condition which affects the brain.

“Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” they said in a statement at the time.

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On Sunday, Heming-Willis shared an emotional message to hers and Bruce’s fans, in her continued effort to spread awareness about dementia and the impact it has on the family members involved.

“I have started the morning by crying as you can see by my swollen eyes,” Heming-Willis said on her Instagram page.

Speaking to the fans, she said she believed it “important that you see all sides of this”.

“I always get this message where people always tell me, ‘Oh you’re so strong. I don’t know how you do it.’ I’m not given a choice. I wish I was but I’m also raising two kids in this,” she said, referencing their two daughters, Mabel and Evelyn.

Heming-Willis added that “sometimes in our lives, we have to put our big girl panties on and get to it, and that’s what I’m doing. But I do have times of sadness every day, grief every day and I’m really feeling it today on his birthday.”

In a follow-up video, she shared the reel she’d made for Bruce which showed a lot of footage clipped together of them on holiday, and Bruce spending time with his children.

Heming-Willis has been open about her husband’s illness and has been sharing updates about him, and her struggle with it as a partner, on social media.

Earlier in the month she made an emotional plea to paparazzi to stop yelling at and calling out to the Hollywood star, urging them to give him space.

“Allow for our family or whoever’s with him that day to be able to get him from point A to point B safely,” she said.