Busted and I'm a Celebrity star Matt Willis has opened up about his marriage struggles with wife Emma Willis, admitting there were "many times" when she came close to leaving him amid his addiction struggles.
The musician and presenter have been married since 2008, Matt revealing in a new interview that while he managed to get sober before their wedding, he relapsed in the mid-2010s while on tour with Busted.
Speaking about recovery, Matt explained to The Guardian that part of the process “is you make amends to people you’ve hurt".
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"I never did that with Emma, I don’t think I ever can. I think the way I choose to do it is to be this guy, every day," he said.
“When she notices something, I take it on board and listen, and I don’t argue. I go: ‘You feel that way. That means that I am doing something, that’s not in your head’."
Matt admitted that in his darkest moments he was "the mastermind at gaslighting, making her think she was crazy. I’m so ashamed of that, and I never want her to feel like that again".
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The star added that things were "very difficult" between him and Emma at points, and that she came close to leaving him a number of times over the years.
"That last relapse was really hard for her, because we had three kids," he recalled. "I’d been eight years sober – we’d thought that it was behind us.
“I went to her and said: 'I need help, I’m surrendering'. Before, it was a case of me promising the world and then letting her down – ‘sorry’ meant nothing.”
Matt's new interview comes ahead of his new documentary Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, which is due to air on BBC One and iPlayer later this month.
For more on drug addiction and dependency, including information and support, please visit FRANK or Action on Addiction.
Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.