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Emma Heming Willis is sharing a vulnerable look at her marriage to Bruce Willis prior to his dementia diagnosis.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Emma, who has been married to the 70-year-old Die Hard star since 2009, admitted that she considered divorcing her husband after noticing his strange behavior, per E! News. Bruce, who shares daughters Mabel 13, and Evelyn, 11, with Emma, 47, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in late 2022.
"I felt like my marriage was crumbling," she said, adding that she "couldn't figure it out."
The changes were especially noticeable given Emma considered their relationship a "romantic, beautiful story." She remembered thinking, "What is going on? This is not the person that I married. Something is just so off."
Emma, who shared more about her experience as a caregiver in her new book The Unexpected Journey: Finding Hope and Purpose on the Caregiving Path, said that period of their marriage is difficult to look back on, saying, "It is so hard right now for me to tap into that time of our life."
She also explained how bringing in professionals to help with her husband's care has allowed her to feel like "his wife again" rather than a caretaker but that their relationship is more than being a "husband and wife thing."
"We're almost past that. I don't know what you call this, but it's something else," she said, adding, "I just feel very connected to him, and I don't know what that label would be. It's just deeper. He's my person."
Bruce's ex-wife Demi Moore recently praised Emma for her compassion and strength amid the Fifth Element actor's health battles.
"I have so much compassion for Emma in this, being a young woman. There's no way that anybody could have anticipated where this was going to go," she said. "And I really think she's done a masterful job. She has been so dedicated to forging the right path. She's had equal amounts of fear and strength and courage in navigating this. I think that this book is gonna really be very helpful for a lot of people who are walking through this."