Emma Heming paid tribute to her “special” husband, Bruce Willis, on their 16th anniversary Wednesday — as the actor continues to battle dementia.
“16 years with this special man,” the former model, 45, captioned an Instagram post accompanied by snaps of the couple embracing each other in front of lush greenery.
“My love and adoration for him only grows,” she added.
Heming shared the post via her Instagram Story as well, writing, “16 years together!? Lord where did the time go.”
A subsequent slide featured a photo of the couple kissing.
“Sweet 16,” she captioned the image.
In another picture of the pair hugging, Heming wrote that she was “smitten” by the Hollywood icon.
Heming’s sweet social media messages come more than a month after she admitted to personal challenges following Willis’ frontotemporal dementia diagnosis, which their family revealed in February.
“I struggle with guilt, knowing that I have resources that others don’t,” she wrote in an op-ed for Marie Shriver’s Sunday Paper published in November.
“When I’m able to get out for a hike to clear my head, it’s not lost on me that not all care partners can do that,” explained the businesswoman, who wed Willis, now 68, in March 2009.
“When what I share about our family’s journey gets press attention, I know that there are many thousands of untold, unheard stories, each of them deserving of compassion and concern.”
However, Heming — who shares daughters Mabel, 11, and Evelyn, 9, with the “Die Hard” star — noted that she feels fulfilled as an “advocate” for other families experiencing similar challenges, especially ones “who don’t have the time, energy, or resources to advocate for themselves.”
Willis’ family announced in March 2022 that he was stepping away from acting after first being diagnosed with aphasia, which the Mayo Clinic defines as a brain disorder that impacts speech and language comprehension.
A year later, the famous brood — which also includes the movie star’s three daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore — announced that his aphasia had devolved into frontotemporal dementia.
“While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” they said in a statement on the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration website.
“FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone. For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia, and because getting the diagnosis can take years, FTD is likely much more prevalent than we know.”
Heming has said that it is “hard to know” whether Willis is aware of his condition.
