Bruce didn’t think another great love was in the cards for him after he and Demi divorced, until he met Malta-born model Emma Heming at the gym of the trainer they happened to share in 2007.

“I spent the last 10 years single and, for the most part, unhappy,” the Die Hard star told W in 2009. “In a dark place. I never thought that being with someone else was the answer. I would say, ‘I’m alone, but I’m not lonely.’ But I was just kidding myself.”

After he started seeing Emma, who’s 23 years his junior, “on a day-to-day basis my life became much happier.”

They tied the knot March 21, 2009, on the beach at their home in Turks and Caicos. Along with Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, Demi was in attendance with then-husband Ashton Kutcher. (They split up in 2011 after six years of marriage.)

Marking 17 years of togetherness on Dec. 29, 2024, Emma—who’s been candid about the difficulties of her husband’s condition—posted about the “unconditional love” that fuels her.

“I feel blessed to know it, and it’s because of him,” she wrote. “I’d do it all over again and again in a heartbeat.”

After Bruce was diagnosed with aphasia and, months later, dementia, Emma cofounded the supplement company Make Time Wellness, with a focus on brain health and prenatal wellness, and launched the Make Time Podcast.

“It’s important to use our voices,” Emma told E! News in 2023, “because through action, awareness and conversation, that creates change.”