Bruce Willis’ wife makes rare comment on meeting actor while engaged to another person: ‘Loved being around him’
Bruce Willis’ wife makes rare comment on meeting actor while engaged to another person: ‘Loved being around him’
Joey NolfiThu, August 6, 2026 at 4:28 PM UTC
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Bruce Willis and Emma Heming WillisCredit: Rich Fury/GettyKey Points -
Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis opened up about meeting the actor while she was previously engaged.
Heming Willis said she “just loved being around him” at the time, and that they went on their first date after she broke off her prior engagement.
“My mom was like, ‘What are you doing? You’re engaged to be married.’”
Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis has made rare comments about first meeting the Hollywood actor while she was previously engaged to another person.
Heming Willis opened up about her courtship with the actor — currently living with frontotemporal dementia — during a new interview with Today alum Hoda Kotb.
She told Kotb that she first met her future husband around 21 years ago, “at the gym like most people in Hollywood do, I guess,” and that their paths crossed as he was leaving his gym session and she was arriving for hers.
Rumer Willis, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Scout Willis, Emma Heming Willis, and Tallulah Willis at Demi Moore’s ‘Inside Out’ book partyCredit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty
“The things I remember about him was just how warm and charismatic, how funny he was. But always really took the time to want to learn more about me. More about who I was, about my life. Prior to that, I’d never really thought about Bruce Willis. I grew up watching Moonlighting, but I was never an action movie fan,” she recalled. “When I’d noticed him, I said to my mother, ‘You know, I met Bruce Willis, and he’s really a lovely man.’ My mom was like, ‘What are you doing? You’re engaged to be married.’”
Heming Willis confirmed that “at the time, I was engaged to be married,” though that engagement fell through.
“Years later after my engagement fizzled, thankfully, we went on our first date,” she continued. “I just really loved being around him. There was something very warm, safe, and fun. My husband is just so full of life, and it was a really beautiful time. It was a really great time in our lives.”
The couple wed in 2009 and have two daughters, Mabel and Evelyn. Willis has three daughters, Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah, with ex-wife Demi Moore.
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Heming Willis added that the Die Hard star “really enjoyed life” and taught her that she didn’t always need the same kind of structure she’d regimented for herself up to that point.
“I feel like, in a way, we helped each other. What he’s instilled in me today is to be a little bit more spontaneous, have a little bit more fun,” Heming Willis said.
Heming Willis has long been open about her life with her husband, who was first diagnosed with aphasia (that turned into frontotemporal dementia) in 2023.
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She previously said that her spouse isn’t aware of his condition.
“I think they think this is their normal. That’s not for everybody. There’s this term — this neurological condition that comes with FTD and other types of dementia — called anosognosia, where your brain can’t identify what’s happening to it,” Emma explained on the Conversations With Cam podcast. “People think this might be denial, they don’t want to go to the doctor because they’re like, ‘I’m fine’ — this is where the anosognosia comes into play. It’s not denial, it’s just that their brain is changing. This is a part of the disease.”
Watch Heming Willis discuss her husband in the video above.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
