Emma Heming Willis talks caring for caregivers following deaths of Gene Hackman, wife
Emma Heming Willis is raising awareness about caring for caregivers following the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa.
"This is not something I would normally comment on but I do really believe that there is some learning in this story, in regards to this tragic passing of Mr. and Mrs. Hackman," Heming Willis, herself a caregiver to her husband Bruce Willis, who has frontotemporal dementia, said in a video shared Tuesday on Instagram.
"It's just made me think of this broader story and that is that caregivers need care too and that they are vital," Heming Willis continued. "And that it is so important that we show up for them so that they can continue to show up for their person."
Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 65, were found deceased in their New Mexico home on Feb. 26 during a welfare check.
Officials later determined that Hackman died around Feb. 18, and Arakawa died around Feb. 11, meaning Hackman was likely home with his deceased wife for one week before he died.
Hackman, an Academy Award-winning actor, died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, with "Alzheimer's disease as a significant contributory factor," and Arakawa died from a rare syndrome known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, according to New Mexico's chief medical investigator.
Heming Willis, who shares two children with Willis, said in her Instagram video that she wants people to know that caregivers need support just as much as the people they care for need assistance.
"I think that there's this common misconception that like caregivers, they got it figured out, they got it covered. They're good. I don't subscribe to that," she said. "I think that we need to be showing up for them so that they can continue to show up for their person."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1 in 5 Americans serve as a caregiver to a family member or friend, a role Arakawa likely assumed as Hackman's spouse.
Heming Willis said previously that she is authoring a book about caregiving, based on her experience caring for her husband.
When her book was announced last year, Heming Willis said she hoped it would serve as a guidebook for caregivers, one she didn't have when she and her family were first facing the uncertainty behind Willis' diagnoses, first with aphasia in 2022, and then with frontotemporal dementia in 2023.
"I want this book to land in the hands of care partners, but especially new care partners, who have just received this life-changing news," Heming Willis said in a February 2024 statement. "They should know they are not alone and there is support, even hope. In a perfect world, I envision this book in that doctor's office, and he or she puts it in their hands to bring home."
