Emma Heming Willis is opening up about the emotional weight of Father’s Day.
The wife of Bruce Willis shared a touching message on Instagram Sunday, honoring not only her husband but also other dads “living with disability or disease.”
Heming Willis shares daughters Mabel Ray and Evelyn Penn with the actor who was diagnosed with aphasia in 2022 and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023. She posted a photo of Willis cuddling one of their girls, along with a moving caption.
“Happy Father’s Day to all the dads living with disability or disease, showing up in the ways they can and to the children who show up for them,” she wrote in the caption. “What Bruce teaches our girls goes far beyond words. Resilience, unconditional love, and the quiet strength in simply being present.
This photo says so much. Love deepens. It adapts. It stays, even when everything else changes.”
Heming Willis also reflected on the emotional complexity of the day.
“But to be fair to myself, these symbolic days stir up a lot.
I’m profoundly sad today. I wish, with every cell in my body, that things could be different for him and lighter for our family,” she continued.
She added, “As they say in our FTD community, ‘It is what it is.’ And while that might sound dismissive, to me, it’s not. It grounds me. It helps me return to the acceptance of what is and not fight this every step of the way like I used to.”
Concluding the post, she wrote, “Today, let’s celebrate the badass dads, those who are here, and those we carry with us.
Onward.”
In addition to the two daughters he shares with Heming Willis, Willis is also a father to daughters Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, whom he shares with ex-wife Demi Moore.
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