Emma Hemming Willis posts bittersweet anniversary message for Bruce Willis

Emma Heming Willis is ringing in almost two decades of marriage with husband Bruce Willis.

"17 years of us ??," the model and actress wrote on Instagram Sunday in a bittersweet tribute to Willis on their anniversary. The caption accompanied a shadowy photo of the couple in Turks and Caicos.

"Anniversaries used to bring excitement — now, if I'm honest, they stir up all the feelings, leaving a heaviness in my heart and a pit in my stomach," Hemming Willis wrote.

The couple married in 2009.

Bruce Willis revealed in 2022 he had been diagnosed with aphasia and would be taking a step back from acting. The condition is described by Johns Hopkins Medicine as a "language disorder caused by damage in a specific area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension." It can take a toll on communication skills, hindering a person's ability to talk with others.

Bruce Willis and my dad received the same aphasia diagnosis. Then everything changed.

In February of 2023, the family revealed his condition had "progressed" and that his diagnosis had been specified as frontotemporal dementia. Since then, he has retreated from public life with his family offering intermittent updates on his condition.

"Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces," the family said in a statement at the time. "While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis."

Heming Willis has become a quasi-spokesperson for her husband's condition, hoping to spread awareness about the disease. "I hate public speaking. My husband really got me into some crap," she joked at a philanthropy summit in October. "What is the other option? The other option is, FTD just puts you in a corner and that's what it wants to do. And I'm like ... This disease will get to Bruce, but it is not going to take our total family down."

Remarking on the bittersweet quality of her anniversary over the past few years, Heming Willis ended on a note of positivity.

"I give myself 30 minutes to sit in the ‘why him, why us,’ to feel the anger and grief," Hemming Willis wrote in her post. "Then I shake it off and return to what is. And what is… is unconditional love. I feel blessed to know it, and it’s because of him. I’d do it all over again and again in a heartbeat."

Contributing: Elise Brisco

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bruce Willis' wife posts bittersweet anniversary tribute