Emma Heming Willis Shares Rare Photo of Bruce Willis for FTD Awareness Week

• Emma Heming Willis, 48, posted a rare new photo of Bruce Willis, 71, on Instagram on Oct. 1 to mark World FTD Awareness Week.
• “He is the driving force behind my advocacy,” she wrote, calling him “a f—ing legend” and promising not to let his diagnosis “be in vain.”
• Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023, a year after his family said he had aphasia and was stepping away from acting.

A bucket hat, dark sunglasses and a white T-shirt covered in doodles. Emma Heming Willis, 48, marked World FTD Awareness Week on Wednesday, Oct. 1, with a rare new photo of her husband, Bruce Willis, 71, sitting outdoors in the sun.

The Die Hard star has not acted since 2022 and is rarely seen in public. Updates on him come mostly through his wife, who writes and speaks about life as his care partner and about frontotemporal dementia, or FTD.

What did Emma Heming Willis say about Bruce Willis?

She opened the caption with him. “I can’t go through World FTD Awareness Week without talking about Bruce,” she wrote. “He is the driving force behind my advocacy. He has opened so many doors for me in this work, and I will continue to walk through them.”

I will not let his diagnosis be in vain. I know how proud he would be to know that he is helping families living with FTD, other forms of dementia and their care partners be seen and heard.

Emma Heming Willis, on Instagram, Oct. 1, 2026

She closed with: “In this next chapter of his life, Bruce continues to build on his legacy. He is, and always will be, a f—ing legend. And I am so proud to be his wife.”

What is World FTD Awareness Week?

It is the yearly campaign that FTD advocacy groups run in late September and early October to draw attention to the disease and to the people caring for someone with it.

Frontotemporal disorders come from damage to nerve cells mainly in the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes, and they are a common cause of early-onset dementia, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Her advocacy now has its own vehicle. In March 2026 she launched the Emma & Bruce Willis Fund, a grant-making organization that funds FTD research and awareness and supports caregivers.

When was Bruce Willis diagnosed with FTD?

In stages. In March 2022, his family said he had aphasia and was stepping away from acting. In February 2023, they said the diagnosis had become more specific: frontotemporal dementia.

He shares daughters Mabel, 14, and Evelyn, 12, with Emma, and Rumer, 38, Scout, 35, and Tallulah, 32, with ex-wife Demi Moore.

In August 2025, Emma sat down with Diane Sawyer for an ABC special, and in September 2025 she published her book, The Unexpected Journey. That month she explained on Good Morning America why Bruce now lives in a separate home near the family, with professional caregivers.

“Dementia plays out differently in every household,” she said then. “You have to do what is right for your family.”

More recently, she has pushed back on the idea that life with dementia is only loss: “We have still so many beautiful moments of joy and connection,” she told Richard Lui on Because We Care.

Before his retirement, Willis won an Emmy for his guest role as Paul Stevens on Friends, the sitcom at the center of Netflix’s upcoming Matthew Perry documentary.

More celebrity health stories: Amanda Peet on the first symptom of her breast cancer and Lady A’s Charles Kelley on his diagnosis. More in Celebrities.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Emma Heming Willis (@emmahemingwillis), Instagram, Oct. 1, 2026; Entertainment Weekly (Wesley Stenzel), Oct. 2, 2026; InStyle (Juliana Ukiomogbe), Oct. 2, 2026; Good Morning America (ABC News), Sept. 9, 2025; ABC News, “Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey. A Diane Sawyer Special,” Aug. 26, 2025; Because We Care with Richard Lui (MS NOW), 2026; Willis family statements, March 2022 and February 2023. National Institute on Aging (NIH), “Frontotemporal Disorders: Causes, Symptoms, and Diagnosis.” Photos and video: Emma Heming Willis (Instagram); TODAY (NBC); ABC News; Good Morning America; Conversations With Cam; Next Question with Katie Couric; Wise & Wonderful Women.