Overview

• Willis remains physically mobile and in generally good health, but his wife says his brain is failing and his language is disappearing.
• The family relocated him to a nearby single‑story residence staffed for round‑the‑clock care, and Emma says she joins him for breakfast and dinner daily.
• Relatives have adopted alternative, mostly nonverbal ways to connect, with brief flashes of his old personality surfacing through a laugh, a look or a smile.
• Emma recalls early warning signs of withdrawal and quietness before a 2022 aphasia diagnosis that was clarified as frontotemporal dementia in 2023.
• The ABC special aired this week, and Emma’s caregiving book, The Unexpected Journey, is slated for release on September 9, with family posts like Rumer Willis’s tribute underscoring the personal toll.