TV presenter Emma Willis said she was waiting for “potential doom” after her husband Matt’s addiction documentary was released.
Willis, 48, said Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction was “f****** terrifying to make”, and they decided to have a break in Thailand during its aftermath.
Her husband, 41, who played bass and sang in pop band Busted in the 2000s, has struggled with addiction to alcohol and drugs, but has now been sober for five years.
Willis, who is hosting Love Is Blind: UK for Netflix with her husband, has previously presented Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother and The Voice UK.
Speaking to Women’s Health magazine about the 2023 addiction documentary, she said: “It was f****** terrifying to make it because we always try to be as private as we can be in a public industry, and that was really putting ourselves out there.
“Even the night before it aired, we were like, ‘what is going to happen tomorrow?’
“We literally went away to Thailand and hid.
“We went for Matt’s birthday, but I timed it so we could have some time together away and wait for potential doom.”
But she said that instead of facing a negative response upon the couple’s return to the UK, they received a “phenomenal” reaction.
Willis added: “It was phenomenal – the response and the stories that people shared.
“It honestly blew us away. I get really emotional every time I talk about it. I couldn’t believe that people were sharing on such a public platform like Instagram what had happened to them.
“It’s something that will be there forever, you know, and it’s how you kind of navigate it day to day, because life can get better.”
The TV presenter was also asked if she would have fallen for the Busted star if she could not see him, as happens to the contestants on their latest show.
She replied: “I’ve been asked this question a lot recently and my answer was a very quick, firm ‘yes, I would have’, and he had to think about it, which was a worry.
“Matt is the most charismatic and funny and loving and gorgeous human on the inside, and his personality just radiates out of him.
“So he would have definitely been at the top of my list, and then I saw him and he was well fit.”
The full interview with Emma Willis can be read in the next issue of Women’s Health, which will be released on Tuesday August 13, or it can be read now on the Women’s Health app by Collective members.
