Bruce Willis’ wife shares emotional 17th anniversary post amid his dementia battle: ‘I’d do it all over again’

Bruce Willis wife Emma Heming Willis opened up about her “unconditional love” for the actor as he battles frontotemporal dementia. 

The 46-year-old model shared an emotional post on Instagram to mark the couple’s 17th anniversary.  The post featured a throwback photo of Willis, 61, and Emma beaming and holding each other as they posed while standing in the ocean as the sun set behind them. The image that she shared was taken at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands, where the pair tied the knot in 2009.

“17 years of us,” Emma began her caption, adding a red heart emoji. “Anniversaries used to bring excitement — now, if I’m honest, they stir up all the feelings, leaving a heaviness in my heart and a pit in my stomach.” 

She continued, “I give myself 30 minutes to sit in the ‘why him, why us,’ to feel the anger and grief. Then I shake it off and return to what is. And what is… is unconditional love. I feel blessed to know it, and it’s because of him. I’d do it all over again and again in a heartbeat.”

In March 2022, Willis stepped away from Hollywood after being diagnosed with aphasia. His family announced in February 2023 that the actor’s aphasia had progressed to frontotemporal dementiaAMP. 

The “Die Hard” star and Emma first met in 2007 and went public with their romance in January 2008 when the “Perfect Stranger” actress accompanied Willis to the premiere of his movie “What Just Happened?” at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

n a December 2022 Instagram post, Emma shared a throwback video in which she and Willis were seen having fun in the snow during a winter vacation. 

“It was that winter, 15 years ago I fell head [over] heels in love with him #loveofmylife,” Emma wrote in the caption.

In a December 2020 interview with People magazine, the pair reminisced about their first meeting.