Bruce Willis’ Wife Pleads With Paparazzi To Keep Their Distance After Dementia Diagnosis

Bruce Willis’ wife is making an emotional plea to the paparazzi.

As you may know, the 67-year-old actor’s family revealed earlier this month that his aphasia has progressed to frontotemporal dementia – which can cause personality changes, speech difficulty, and motor impairment. So with his recent diagnosis, Emma Heming has a simple request for the paps moving forward – to keep their distance whenever he is out in public. She shared a video to Instagram on Saturday, recalling an incident where paparazzi tried to speak with Bruce during a rare public appearance to meet friends for coffee in Santa Monica:

“If you are someone who is looking after someone with dementia, you know how difficult and stressful it can be to get someone out into the world and to navigate them safely, even just to get a cup of coffee. I’m just seeing headlines. And there’s a video of my husband out getting some coffee with some friends that did a stand-up job with protecting him.”

Related: Bruce’s Family Reveals How They’re Helping Him To ‘Live As Full A Life As Possible’

Becoming choked up, Emma stopped filming to take a moment to collect herself. She then returned to ask the paparazzi and videographers to “keep your space” and to not yell at the Die Hard star in public while his loved ones try to get him somewhere safe. The 44-year-old said:

“It’s clear that there’s still a lot of education that needs to be put worth. So this one is going out to the photographers and video people that are trying to get those exclusives of my husband out and about. Just keep your space. I know this is your job, but maybe just keep your space. Please don’t be yelling at my husband, asking how he’s doing, whatever. The woo-hooing and the yippee-ki-yay’s — just don’t do it.”

Emma then asked one more time for everyone to stay back, concluding:

“Give him the space. Allow for our family or whoever’s with him that day to be able to get him from Point A to Point B safely. That’s my PSA.”

In the caption, she also asked ” other caregivers or dementia care specialists” for tips on “how to get your loved ones out in the world safely.” It is so, so awful that he’s being harassed like this while out in public. Hopefully, the paps listen to her warning and keep their distance moving forward. You can watch her entire message (below):

[Image via Brian To/WENN]