Emma Heming Willis revealed she was engaged to another man when she first met her husband Bruce Willis at a Los Angeles gym in 2005.
Heming, 50, shared the origins of their romance on Making Space, a podcast hosted by Today show veteran Hoda Kotb, while nursing Willis, 71, through his dementia decline. Willis and Heming exchanged vows in 2009 and have since welcomed two daughters, Mabel, 14, and Evelyn, 12.
When they were first introduced after crossing paths at the Los Angeles outpost of trainer-to-the-stars Gunnar Peterson, Heming was a model who was named one of Maxim's Top 100 beautiful women that year and had previously walked the 2001 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Willis was a longstanding Hollywood icon, although Heming claimed she had never really thought about him prior to their meeting because of her indifference to action movies.
The Malta-born fashionista alleged that prior to that meeting, she had never really thought about Bruce Willis. She explained that she grew up watching Moonlighting, the 1980s detective series starring Willis opposite The Last Picture Show actress Cybill Shepherd where he rocketed to nationwide heartthrob status, but added she was never an action movie fan.
Meeting at a Los Angeles Gym
Heming recalled meeting Willis at the gym like most people in Hollywood do, noting that his time was before hers and they would overlap. She said she was struck by how warm and charismatic, how funny he was, but always really took the time to want to learn more about her and her life.
After her initial encounter, she effused to her mother about how lovely he was. She recalled telling her mother, "You know, I met Bruce Willis, and he's really a lovely man." Her mother sternly responded, "What are you doing? You're engaged to be married," to which Heming said with a laugh, "No, no, no!"
Heming confessed that she was engaged at the time, but said it was not until years later, after her engagement fizzled, thankfully, that they went on their first date. Although Heming declined to name her ex-fiancé on the podcast, the man in question was Los Angeles nightlife entrepreneur Brent Bolthouse, who later featured on The Hills and now owns the Santa Monica hot spot The Bungalow.
The Daily Mail contacted representatives for Willis, Heming, and Bolthouse for further comment.
Dating and Marriage
Heming fondly remembered that after her engagement ended, she just really loved being around Willis. She said there was something really warm, safe and fun, adding that her husband was so full of life during what was a really beautiful time.
She and Willis made their way down the aisle in 2009, about 11 years on from his separation from his first wife Demi Moore, with whom he amicably co-parented his three eldest daughters Rumer, 37, Scout, 35, and Tallulah, 32.
Shortly after marrying, Willis and Heming sat for a joint profile in W magazine, in which Willis raved about how meeting Heming transformed his life. Willis said he went from "F*** love," to: "Love is truly the answer."
Willis added that he spent the previous 10 years single and, for the most part, unhappy in a dark place. He explained that he used to say he was alone but not lonely, but admitted he was kidding himself until he started hanging around Heming and his daily life became much happier.
Health Decline and Family Support
Willis withdrew from Hollywood in 2022 after developing the brain condition aphasia, which causes a patient's language abilities to deteriorate. In 2023, his family announced that his aphasia had progressed and he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, also known as FTD.
Heming, Moore, and all of Willis' daughters rallied around him, and Heming has since released a bestselling book about his illness titled The Unexpected Journey.
In a joint couple's interview promoting the memoir with Diane Sawyer on ABC, Heming revealed that the hardest decision she took while looking after Willis was moving him into a separate one-story house away from their primary residence. Willis lives there with a full-time care team, while Heming brings Mabel and Evelyn to visit him a lot, including for breakfast and dinner.
Heming insisted Bruce would want that for their daughters, adding he would want them to be in a home tailored to their needs rather than his. Days after the broadcast aired, Heming complained on Instagram that she had been criticized online for shifting Willis into a separate house, arguing she had been judged quickly and unfairly by people with an opinion versus people with an actual experience.
A family insider informed the Daily Mail last year that the Die Hard icon was going downhill fast to the point he does not know some faces anymore. The source said Willis' daughters were all spending as much time with him as they can, adding that he lights up when he sees his children.
