(CNN) — Bruce Willis’s wife, Emma Heming Willis, has asked the paparazzi to keep their distance and stop yelling at the “Die Hard” star when they see him in public.
Heming Willis made an emotional plea in a video shared to his Instagram page over the weekend, stating that “there is still a lot of education to be done” about people living with dementia.
Recounting a recent incident in which photographers tried to talk to the ailing actor while he was making a rare public appearance to meet friends for coffee in Santa Monica, the 44-year-old model noted how “difficult and stressful it can be to get someone into the world and take them safely.
“This goes out to the photographers and video people who are trying to get those scoops on my husband out and about: save your space,” she says in the video. “I know this is his job, but save his space.”
She added: “To the ones in the videos, please don’t yell at my husband asking how he is or whatever, the ‘woohoo’ and the ‘yippee ki-yay’… just don’t do it. OKAY?” “Give him his space. Let our family or whoever is with him that day get him from point A to point B safely.”
Heming Willis added in the video’s caption: “To other caregivers or dementia care specialists navigating this world… Any advice or suggestions on how to get your loved ones out into the world safely? Please share it below.”
Heming Willis and Willis, 67, married in 2009 and have two daughters, Mabel and Evelyn.
Their request comes weeks after Willis’s family announced that his speech disorder, aphasia, had progressed to a form of dementia called frontotemporal dementia, or FTD.
“Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope may change in the coming years. As Bruce’s disease progresses, we hope that the attention of the media will focus on shedding light on this disease that needs much more awareness and research,” they said last month in an update shared online.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, FTD refers to “a group of disorders caused by the progressive loss of nerve cells in the brain’s frontal lobes (the areas behind the forehead) or temporal lobes.” These areas of the brain are often associated with personality, behavior, and language.
