Meet Bruce Willis’ wife and caregiver Emma Heming Willis: the 45-year-old former model walked the runway for Dior, Chanel and Victoria’s Secret, acted in Entourage, and met her husband at the gym
- Since his dementia diagnosis, Bruce Willis’s wife of 14 years Emma Heming Willis has spoken out about the couple’s struggle with the disease, and continues to rally support from fans
- The couple met because they shared a personal trainer, fell in love and later starred together in the film Red 2 – and Bruce remains good friends with ex-wife Demi Moore with whom he has 3 daughters
Close to a year after his family announced that he would be stepping away from acting due to cognitive decline caused by aphasia, Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, provided her husband’s fans with updates about his increasingly poor health.
In February 2023, Heming Willis announced that the actor had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Symptoms of the incurable condition are similar to those of Alzheimer’s – patients experience memory loss and difficulty understanding and producing language.
Heming Willis has commented on her experience becoming the caregiver of her husband of 14 years. “You know, I have my moments. It just depends. I’m hanging in there and doing the best that I can. And turning my pain into purpose,” she said in a May interview with certified dementia practitioner Gertrude Jordan.
Here’s a look inside the life of Emma Heming Willis, and her relationship with Bruce Willis.
Emma Heming Willis is half Guyanese, half English
Emma Heming, now 45, was born on the island of Malta before growing up in London and California.
On her personal website, she said she lived on the “small but beautiful” island of Malta, which lies south of Italy in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, until her parents got divorced when she was a child. Her mother is Guyanese and her father is English, she wrote.
After her parents split up, she moved to London and then Southern California with her mother.
“My mother has been the ultimate guide in my life – she is the rock that I cherish, respect and admire,” she wrote on her website.
She was a model
In her 20s, she worked as a model, walking catwalks around the world and fronting high-profile designer campaigns.
Heming Willis’ modelling career went full force after she won a competition in London titled The British Elle Supermodel in the early 1990s.
“For the next 15 years, I had the privilege of walking the runways in New York, Paris and Milan for Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Emanuel Ungaro, Dior and Victoria’s Secret,” she wrote on her website, adding that she was also the face of Dior cosmetics campaigns, and was featured in commercials for Clairol and Redken hair products.
She made a career move into acting
She later began working as an actress and landed a role in the film Perfect Stranger – alongside her future husband – in 2007.
In 2001, Heming Willis began her acting career. She played minor parts in Perfume and Entourage before landing a role in Perfect Stranger, which starred Willis and Halle Berry. In 2013, she acted alongside her husband once more in Red 2.
She met her future husband while working out
However, she first met Willis at the gym in 2007. “In 2007, I met my husband-to-be, Bruce, at our mutual trainer’s gym,” Heming Willis wrote on her website.
In a joint interview with People in 2020, the couple discussed the day they met. “When we first met, I was surprised at how charming and how funny he was – and extremely handsome,” Heming Willis told the magazine. “That was my first thought of you.”
“I was already in love with her,” Willis added.
Their wedding was an emotional one
On their 13th wedding anniversary, Heming Willis shared a photo on Instagram of the couple on their wedding crying as they listened to speeches made by their loved ones. “Thirteen years ago, those wedding speeches really sent us over the edge,” she wrote in the caption.
Willis was married to Demi Moore from 1987 to 2000. The two are still close friends, and have reportedly grown closer since Willis was diagnosed with dementia in March 2022.
They now have two young children
The couple has two daughters together – 11-year-old Mabel Ray Willis and 9-year-old Evelyn Penn Willis – in addition to Willis’ three daughters from his previous marriage. On her website, Heming Willis describes her daughters as a “source of inspiration”.
Willis also has three older daughters – 34-year-old Rumer Glenn, 31-year-old Scout LaRue, and 29-year-old Tallulah Belle – with his ex-wife Moore. Heming Willis has a good relationship with her husband’s ex and their daughters, often sharing updates on Instagram showing them spending time together.
Willis is apparently over the moon about being the father of five daughters. For Father’s Day in 2021, Heming Willis shared a photo on Instagram with the caption, “Bruce’s response when asked if he’d like to have a son? ‘I’d have five more girls right now.’ Happy Father’s Day to this proud #girldad.”
“I can’t imagine having five boys,” Willis told People in 2020. “I can’t imagine having one boy.”
After becoming a mother, Heming Willis became an ambassador for Room to Grow, a charity that helps children in poverty, according to People.
They’ve made a perfume together
The couple has collaborated on business endeavours and even developed three fragrances together.
Around the same time the couple tied the knot, the Willises began collaborating to create three fragrances, two of which were nominated for Duftstars Awards, dubbed the “Fragrance Oscars”.
Their first fragrance, called Bruce Willis, was released in 2010 and nominated for the prestigious German award. Two years later, they created a women’s fragrance, called Lovingly, which was “a declaration of [Bruce’s] love to his wife” and “is intended for modern, style-conscious women who radiate a certain sensuousness”, according to Business Wire.
She’s been supporting her husband since his diagnosis
One of Willis’ daughters, Rumer, shared the update on her father’s health in an Instagram post and said he would be “stepping away” from acting.
“This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support,” she wrote in the caption, in a letter signed by Willis’ entire family.
Heming Willis updated her followers on her husband’s worsening condition in February, announcing that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
“Our family wanted to start by expressing our deepest gratitude for the incredible outpouring of love, support and wonderful stories we have all received since sharing Bruce’s original diagnosis,” she wrote in the caption.
“Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD),” she continued.
“Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” she said.
She’s been rallying Bruce Willis’ online supporters
She continues to provide her Instagram followers with updates on her husband’s health, while supporting causes that help fight his condition.
Heming Willis shared an Instagram post on her husband’s 68th birthday, pleading with his fans to continue sending support.
“My birthday wish for Bruce is that you continue to keep him in your prayers and highest vibrations because his sensitive Pisces soul will feel it,” she wrote alongside a video montage of clips of the happy couple.
Around the same time, in March, she attended the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) Hope Rising Benefit, which helps fight frontotemporal dementia and provides support to those affected by the condition.
On May 26, Heming Willis shared another Instagram post expressing her disappointment that trials for a potential treatment for frontotemporal dementia had been discontinued.
“Yesterday I read that Wave Life Sciences ended their clinical trial that could potentially treat frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS.),” she wrote in the caption. “Where I’m not sure it could have helped us over here, it doesn’t really matter, it still feels like a gut punch.”
She urged her followers to fight for a treatment for her husband’s condition. “Please keep that momentum going, build on the learnings/findings and don’t give up on this loving community,” she continued. “Our family will continue to keep the faith and never lose hope.”
Heming Willis has just opened up about being Willis’ caregiver
In honour of the couple’s most recent wedding anniversary – their 14th – Heming Willis discussed the difficulties of being a caregiver to a romantic partner.
She wrote on Instagram, “[My anniversary] got me thinking about how hard these types of ‘special occasions’ can be on caregivers,” she wrote. “When usually our person would acknowledge the event, now their changing brains just can’t.”
She also offered advice to those looking for ways to support people who provide care to loved ones. “If you know someone that is looking after someone else, don’t ask what you can do, just do,” she added.
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