Matt Willis, the Busted bassist and husband of new Strictly Come Dancing host Emma Willis, has revealed that a seemingly minor issue in their marriage escalated into a significant problem that required couples counselling. The couple, who have been married since 2008 and share three children—Isabelle, Ace, and Trixie—have faced challenges, including Matt's past struggles with addiction.
Couples Counselling and the 'Same Conversation'
Speaking on his addiction-themed podcast On the Mend to Pop Idol winner Will Young, Matt admitted that he and Emma kept having the same argument without resolution. '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,' he said.
Matt explained that the breakthrough came when they identified the root cause. '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. That was everything that was holding us away from truly loving,' he added.
Emma's New Role on Strictly
Last month, Emma was announced as the new host of Strictly Come Dancing, alongside Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, replacing veterans Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly, who left the show in 2025. Emma expressed her excitement: '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!'
Matt's Personal Development and Emma's Feedback
Matt has previously shared that Emma provides him with constructive criticism. He asked her what he needed to work on, and she pointed out his tendency not to follow through with plans. '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',' Matt recalled on the podcast.
He admitted that the criticism was 'hard to hear' but acknowledged it was something he needed to address. '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',' he said.
Matt, who has been sober since 2016 after struggling with cocaine and alcohol addiction, documented his journey in the documentary Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction.
