Emma and Matt Willis’ relationship has not been without its challenges, with the Busted bassist revealing they had couples counselling, where they kept having the “same conversation”
Emma Willis’ husband, Matt, has shed light on a “small” issue in their marriage that was holding that caused a “big problem” in their marriage. The Strictly Come Dancing host has been married to the Busted bassist since 2008. They share three children, Isabelle, Ace, and Trixie, but their relationship has not been without its challenges.
Matt, who spent time in rehab and appeared in the documentary Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, has previously spoken publicly about his struggles with cocaine and alcohol, but has now been sober since 2016.
He and Emma also went to couples counselling, but he said they kept having the “same conversation”. Speaking to Pop Idol winner Will Young, Matt admitted they were “never getting anywhere”.
He explained on his addiction-themed On the Mend podcast: “We had this same thing that was kind of coming up in our relationship. I won’t go into too many details, but same thing, same conversation over and over again, never getting anywhere.”
Matt added: “Once we actually got to the root of what that was, we have never had that problem ever again. And it was so small when I think about it, you know, but it was actually massive.
“You know, and now, looking back at it, I was like, ‘That was everything that was holding us away from truly loving’.”
Last month, Emma was announced as the new host of Strictly, alongside Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe. They replace Strictly veterans Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly, who quit the BBC show in 2025.
Emma said in a statement: “I can’t wait to spend my weekends with Josh and Jojo, the incredible dancers and the judges. Fingers crossed for a 10 from them!”
Meanwhile, Matt has previously said Emma gives him constructive feedback, and he has asked her what he needs to work on as part of his personal development. Emma noted that he had a tendency not to follow through with his plans.
Speaking on the podcast previously, he said: “I asked Emma about it, and she thought about it for quite a while, and then she basically gave me the same one which I’ve said before, which is I don’t follow through with things. It was worded slightly different, but that was the message.”
He added: “She basically said, ‘You have so many ideas, which is hard to keep up with at times, and I don’t want to disregard your passion and ideas for stuff, but there’s so many, and so few of them are going to take flight’.
“And she was like, ‘I don’t want to stop you from being this creative thing that comes up with all this stuff, but you don’t follow through on most of them, and some of them which you come to that are important, you don’t follow through with’.”
Matt admitted her criticism was “hard to hear”, but said it was something he needed to work on.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login