Emma Heming Willis is reflecting on how the “charismatic” man she met at the gym while she was engaged to someone else eventually became her husband, Bruce Willis.

Speaking to Hoda Kotb on the “Making Space” podcast, published Aug. 5, the model recalled how the actor made an impression when they first crossed paths at a gym in 2005.

“His time was before mine, and we would sort of overlap, and the things I remember about him was just how warm and charismatic, how funny he was, but he always really took the time to want to learn more about me,” she told Kotb. “Just more about who I was, about my life, and prior to that I had never really thought about Bruce Willis.”

Heming Willis said she was a fan of his 1980s comedy-drama series “Moonlighting,” but hadn’t followed his action movie career.

“I was never really an action movie fan. So when I had noticed him, I had said to my mother, ‘I met Bruce Willis, and he’s really a lovely man,’ and my mom was like, ‘What are you doing? You’re engaged to be married,'” she recalled. “I said, ‘No, no, no’ – yes, at the time, I was engaged to be married, but I had met him, and I just noticed that.”

The two began dating years later after Heming Willis’ engagement ended. By 2008, they were stepping out publicly together, including at a screening of “Flawless” alongside Willis’ former wife Demi Moore and their daughter, Tallulah Willis.

“There was just something very warm, safe and fun,” Heming Willis said of their relationship. “My husband is just so full of life, and it was a really beautiful time. It was a really great time in our lives.”

The couple married in 2009 and share daughters Mabel Willis, 14, and Evelyn Willis, 12. Willis also shares daughters Rumer, Scout and Tallulah with Moore.

Heming Willis, 50, has since become an advocate for dementia awareness and caregiving while navigating her husband’s frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.

In 2023, the “Die Hard” star’s family announced that his aphasia, first disclosed in 2022, had progressed to frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. The condition encompasses a group of brain disorders primarily affecting the frontal and temporal lobes, areas associated with personality, behavior and language.

Heming Willis told Kotb that her husband’s condition initially left her feeling guilty about celebrating her recent 50th birthday.

“I was unsure if I really wanted to do anything,” she said. “But I had a friend of mine who kept sort of pushing and saying, ‘You know what? You don’t wanna miss out on your 50th. You have to celebrate in some form or fashion.'”

Heming Willis ultimately marked the milestone with what she described as a “lovely” party filled with friends, tacos and margaritas, though she admitted she still struggled with guilt.

“I always wrestle with it, you know?” she said. “I think guilt is something that I am always carrying, but I’ve learned that it is really not helpful. What I know is I always go back to what would my husband want for me?”

Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY