Diane Sawyer Visited Bruce Willis at '2nd Home' Amid His Dementia Battle

Diane Sawyer recalled a recent visit with Bruce Willis amid his battle with frontotemporal dementia.

Sawyer, 79, sat down for an emotional conversation with Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, on ABC’s Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey, which aired on Tuesday, August 26. The pair spoke about how Willis’ friends continue to visit the actor at his home, separate from the house where Heming Willis, 47, primarily lives with their two daughters, Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11.

“We are there a lot,” Emma explained of the living situation. “It’s our second home, so the girls have their things there. It is a house that is filled with love and warmth and care and laughter, and it’s been beautiful to see that, to see how many of Bruce’s friends continue to show up for him, and they bring in life and fun.”

While Willis, 70, did not physically appear in the special, Sawyer spoke about visiting him on her own time.

“Since friends can come by, Emma gave me a gift. I went to see Bruce without cameras just to honor all of those memories over all those years,” Sawyer said in a voiceover as photos of Willis flashed on the screen.

Sawyer visited the one-story home with a producer that Willis “always loved.” (Willis lives in the home, located close to where Heming Willis lives with the girls, with a full-time care team.)

“As we walked up, he seemed happy and, as Emma said, walking, healthy,” Sawyer told viewers. “We sat on a sofa outside, and at one point, without words, he took my hand. I talked about the old days and saw flashes of that irrepressible smile.”

Sawyer interviewed Willis a number of times in the decades prior to his dementia diagnosis. During one part of the ABC special, a clip from a past interview where Willis asked Sawyer to set him up with a woman was shown.

“Can’t you find someone for me? Can’t you find me a girl? You just meet so many people,” the actor said in the clip prior to meeting Heming Willis.

Willis married Heming Willis in 2009, but even after the nuptials, he proudly declared he “always” had a crush on Sawyer. It became a running joke between Sawyer and the Willis family each time she saw them.

Willis’ family revealed he was diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder, in March 2022, causing him to retire from acting. They publicly announced his condition had progressed to frontotemporal dementia, a rare form of the disease that causes communication and behavioral challenges, in February 2023.

Heming Willis shared an update on her husband’s health and shared how the family has been coping with his disease. (Willis shares daughters Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31, with ex-wife Demi Moore.)

“Bruce is still very mobile,” Heming Willis told Sawyer. “Bruce is in really great health overall. It’s just his brain that is failing him. The language is going. We’ve learned to adapt, and we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different way.”