Emma Heming Willis wants to shed light on how misleading media coverage of neurocognitive illness can affect families – including her own.
In a candid video posted to Instagram on Sunday, Emma, 47, shared her reaction to the “clickbait” headline about her family and the health of her 68-year-old husband Bruce Willis.
“The title actually says that there is no more joy in my husband. Now I can only tell you that it is far from the truth,” Emma said at the beginning of the video. “I need society – and whoever writes these stupid headlines – to stop scaring people. Stop scaring people into thinking that once they’re diagnosed with some kind of neurocognitive illness, that’s it. ‘It’s over. Let’s pack. We are — Nothing else to see here. Were done.’ Not.”
She then said her family’s experience was “the complete opposite of that” amid Bruce’s frontotemporal dementia (FTD) diagnosis.
“There is sadness and grief. It has all that. But you’re starting a new chapter,” Emma said, adding that the new chapter is “filled with love, filled with connection, filled with joy, filled with happiness.”
“Here we are. So stop with those stupid headlines. Those stupid things that drive people crazy. Stop it. There’s nothing to see here, okay?” she continued.
Emma Heming Willis & Helen Christoni Share ‘Make Time’ Brain Health Mission: ‘Your Purpose Finds You’ (Exclusive)
Bruce Willis and Emma Heming Willis.
Emma Heming Willis/Instagram
In the caption, Emma further addressed the inaccurate reporting she had seen as she urged the media to “be careful” with how dementia stories are shaped.
“My experience is that two things can be true and exist at the same time. Sadness and deep love. Sadness and deep connection. Trauma and resilience. I had to go out of my way to get here, but once I got there, life really started to make sense and I had a real sense of purpose. There is so much beauty and soulfulness in this story,” she wrote.
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“I realized that we are being educated by the wrong people. People who have opinion versus experience. People who have not taken the time to properly educate themselves about any type of neurocognitive illness. Why can I be so bold and say that? Because I’m seeing headline after headline and a barrage of misinformation,” Emma continued.
She added: “I’m not even talking about my family, I’m used to the craziness of these far-fetched headlines and stories. I’m just talking about the basic awareness of dementia and what’s being given to the public. It makes you wonder why anxiety and depression is present in our society. I mean it that part of it has to do with this kind of clickbait, how things are put up and pushed at us and how we have a split second to take that information in. Man, it’s going to do a number on my psyche.”
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Emma’s candid comments about the media’s view of neurocognitive disorders — and how her husband of 16 years’ diagnosis has been publicly discussed — come after she spoke with PEOPLE about the work she and her business partner and friend Helen Christoni do through their wellness brand, Make Time, which raises awareness of the importance of brain health, especially for women. The pair were among those celebrated as PEOPLE’s Women Changing the World, which highlights women who are making a difference in their communities and beyond.
Through her work with Make Time and as Bruce’s carer, Emma emphasizes the comfort one can find in a shared experience.
“I was able to rely on this new community that I found myself in, so giving back to people who are on this journey as partners in care was extremely meaningful,” she said. “Community is everything.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education