Emma Heming Willis felt "very isolated" after Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD)

Emma - who has kids Mable, 13, and Evelyn, 11, with the star - told PEOPLE magazine: "Early on, I was very isolated.

"I was too scared to say anything to anyone. I was in so much sadness and darkness for so long."

Emma, 49, had become a full-time caregiver for Bruce by the time he was diagnosed, initially with aphasia a few months before the FTD diagnosis.

She said: "I think for most [people], by the time you get to a diagnosis, you are already in that role."

However, getting the diagnosis was a comfort in a way, after she had a period of time where she noticed her husband changing but didn't have an explanation for it.

She recalled: "There was relief in understanding, 'Oh, okay, this wasn't my husband, it was that this disease was taking parts of his brain.' "

Although Emma felt like she and her family were alone for a long time, she soon found comfort in people who were going through the same thing, and she's spoken out about her experience to help others.

Now, she is letting herself still "enjoy" life, even in heartbreaking circumstances.

She said: "While the grief and sadness and trauma is here all the time, I have learned it's okay for me to also enjoy our life.

"Bruce would want that for me and for our kids, to not wallow in the sadness of it, but also rise to it."

Meanwhile, Emma recently revealed she had made the difficult decision to move him into a one-storey house with a full-time care team in order to protect the wellbeing of their daughters.

Along with his kids with Emma, Bruce also shares three adult daughters with his former wife, Demi Moore, 62 - Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31.