Matt Willis has defended his wife Emma Willis after she received backlash from Strictly Come Dancing viewers. Emma, 50, married to the Busted singer since 2013, became one of the new hosts of the BBC show alongside Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe following the departure of Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. While Emma appears to have drawn the most praise from fans, Josh and Johannes have faced criticism since the series launched in September.
Matt's praise on This Morning
Speaking on This Morning on Thursday (October 8), Matt said: "I love working with Emma, she's so good at what she does. I've never watched so much Strictly in my life, I'm at every live show. She's smashing it, she's so happy." He also revealed that Emma does not listen to outside noise, adding: "She doesn't pay attention to anything, she's very good at doing her job. She just puts her head down, does her job the best she can. She loves working with Josh and Jojo and they're great and they're brilliant and they're lovely people and they're just in all of this together."
Conflict of interest quip
Hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard then pressed Matt on whether he would consider joining Strictly himself. He said: "I've been asked to do Strictly a couple of times but I've got a valid reason not to now. I think it would be a bit of a conflict of interest." Watching the show live, he added: "Watching it does make you go, 'That's impressive', especially when you're there live, watching them do it. I'm like 'Wow that's difficult'. And when they pick up on little things, I think, 'What are you talking about, that was amazing!'"
Brendan Cole's criticism
The defence follows comments from former Strictly professional Brendan Cole, who admitted he is struggling to warm to the new presenters. Speaking on Jeremy Vine, he said: "There's been a massive backlash to the hosts because it's not what people are used to. I'm not enjoying it so far. I think Emma has been great. I think Josh is trying to be great and I don't think he's a bad host, but does he fit Strictly? I'm not sure." Brendan, a pro on the show from 2004 to 2017, acknowledged that Johannes fits Strictly because he used to be a professional, but said he does not want to hear "my darling" said repeatedly every time a pairing comes upstairs.
