Bruce Willis' wife Emma shares creative way daughters remember FTD

Bruce Willis’ younger daughters have coined a playful acronym to remember his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.

In a new interview for Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey, the actor’s wife Emma Heming Willis, 47, shared how she first spoke to their daughters Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11, about his condition.

“Pretty quickly, I told them. I have always been very open with the girls,” the model told Diane Sawyer. “I never wanted them to think that [Bruce] wasn’t paying attention to them.”

She added that giving them the information brought clarity. “There was a sense of relief for all of us — now we get it, now we understand.”

However, “frontotemporal dementia” was a difficult term to pronounce and remember for the young girls, so they came up with a playful acronym: “Fantastic Turtles Dancing in Bruce’s Head.”

“The girls put that together so we could remember the way the letters go,” Heming Willis shared.

The Willis family first revealed in March 2022 that Bruce, now 70, had been diagnosed with aphasia, prompting his retirement from acting. Less than a year later, Heming Willis confirmed his FTD diagnosis.

She also shared at another point during the interview that Bruce's brain is “failing him.” Emma elaborated that Bruce remains in good health physically, and the family has adapted to new ways of communicating with him. 

“The language is going, but we’ve learned to adapt. And we still have a way of connecting,” Emaa added.

Bruce still shares a bond with all five of his daughters, including Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31, from his marriage to Demi Moore.

Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+.