Emma Heming Willis is celebrating her 17th anniversary with husband Bruce Willis by reflecting on the meaning of unconditional love.
On Dec. 29, Heming Willis, who has been married to the actor since 2009, uploaded a romantic photo to Instagram of the couple posing in front of a sunset on the island of Parrot Cay in Turks and Caicos.
“17 years of us,” she began in the poignant caption, adding a red heart emoji.
Heming Willis went on to explain why she has conflicting feelings about their anniversary.
“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.”
Willis’ family publicly announced in 2022 that he was diagnosed with aphasia, which affected his cognitive abilities, and was stepping away from acting. About a year later, his family shared that Willis’ disease had progressed to frontotemporal dementia. Heming Willis, 46, has acted as her husband’s caregiver for the past two years.
She wrote in her anniversary tribute that her range of emotions toward their anniversary represents their “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,” she said.
The couple share daughters Mabel, 12, and Evelyn, 10. The “Pulp Fiction” star, 69, also has three daughters — Rumer Willis, 36, Scout Willis, 33, and Tallulah Willis, 30 — with ex-wife Demi Moore.
Since Willis’ family revealed his health issues, Heming Willis has opened up about caring for her husband and when she first noticed changes.
In an interview with Town & Country in October, Heming Willis said that Willis grew up with a “severe stutter as a child” before he learned in college to memorize and act out a script without stuttering.
She explained that Willis “has always had a stutter but he has been good at covering it up.” But in recent years, the speech impediment worsened.
“As his language started changing, it (seemed like it) was just a part of a stutter, it was just Bruce. Never in a million years would I think it would be a form of dementia for someone so young,” Heming Willis said.
She added, “I say that FTD whispers, it doesn’t shout. It’s hard for me to say, ‘This is where Bruce ended, and this is where his disease started to take over.’”
Willis’ family has come together to assist Heming Willis as a caregiver.
“The family respects the way I’m looking after him; they really support me,” she shared. “If I need to vent, if I need to cry, if I need to rage — because all of that can happen and it’s OK to have those feelings — they are always there to listen.”
She expressed her gratitude for their blended family.