While celebrity partnerships are often tumultuous, Emma and Matt Willis’ 17-year marriage seems to be stronger than ever. In a new BBC series, the presenter and Busted star credit therapy as the key to their happy marriage. The series is not their first time presenting together, the couple also hosts the popular Netflix series Love is Blind UK, where strangers look for love without meeting in person.
“Therapy came into my life along with my husband”, reveals Emma. “I didn’t think I needed it…Lo and behold, first session, bang”.
Change Your Life, Change Your Mind, follows Matt and Emma as they help a group of individuals through the process of therapy, many of whom are strangers to the concept.
“It’s quite incredible what we’ve got to witness,” says Emma in the programme. “It’s that bravery to put that first step forward and put things into action when maybe you’re absolutely terrified about what might happen, but actually running towards it is much more helpful than running away from it.”
The show is rooted in the couple's own experiences of therapy and the positive impact it has had on their relationship.
“You can unravel so many different things. We can all change, we can all evolve and help ourselves”, says Matt. “We’re a work in progress, I’m always working on something”
The pair have been candid about their experience of couples therapy, telling Newlyweds Podcast hosts Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo last year that their decision to go was down to “a couple of sticking points that we can’t understand each other's viewpoints on” and joked about the onslaught of emotions and tears that came in their first session.
Matt, who was the initiator in the couple's decision to attend counselling together, (Emma had never tried it before he suggested the idea) is a vocal advocate for its necessity.
“I’ve had quite a lot of therapy, first when I was about 21 in rehab and then I went through different times when I needed it more,” he said on the One Show this week, opening up about the “transformative” effect therapy has had on his life.
“It’s been the most important thing in my life apart from sobriety I’d say. It’s kept me rooted.”
Matt’s struggle with drugs and alcohol was explored in the documentary Fighting Addiction, cataloguing a decades-long history of substance abuse, and the inevitable impact on his marriage with Emma. At the height of his addiction after Busted’s reunion in 2016, he was taking six grams of cocaine a day.
Going to therapy allowed Matt to come to terms with this time of his life, changing the “negative opinion” he had developed of himself and how he interacted with his loved ones, he said on BBC Radio 2 this week.
Formerly a sceptic, Emma is now converted to the benefits of therapy too. She revealed to Closer that her therapist told her she has anxiety, which she says altered her “whole perspective” and self perception. “I would take therapy over a posh dinner date night,” she added.
Therapy has also supported the couple through Emma’s health struggles this past year, with the presenter recently undergoing lifesaving keyhole surgery.
“Turns out, I’ve been pottering around for 48 years blissfully unaware I had a hole in my heart,” she wrote on Instagram. She thanked a host of people who supported her through the ordeal, first and foremost crediting Matt, “who never left my side.”
