Bruce Willis’s wife, Emma Heming, celebrates the actor’s birthday with a moving message about grief

() — Bruce Willis turned 68 this Sunday and his wife Emma Heming marked the day with a heartfelt message about caring for someone living with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

“I started the morning crying, as you can see by my swollen eyes,” Heming said in a reel posted on his verified Instagram account.

In his ongoing effort to raise awareness about the realities of processing a dementia diagnosis in the family, Heming shared that he believes “it’s important that you see all sides of this.”

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

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

Willis’s family, including ex-wife Demi Moore and their three children Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, shared an update in February that the actor was diagnosed with FTD after first disclosing his aphasia diagnosis in 2022.

According to mayo clinic, FTD is a “general term for a group of brain disorders that primarily affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. These areas of the brain are generally associated with personality, behavior, and language.

Heming has taken pains to document her journey as Willis’ caretaker, saying in the caption to Sunday’s post that the messages of support she reads from her followers help her in this regard.

She tearfully concluded her video message by saying that “as much as I’m doing it for me, I’m doing it for you because I know how much you adore my husband.”