Matt Willis, husband of Emma Willis, has shared a genuinely difficult memory from his past struggle with alcohol — discovering a diary his wife had secretly kept, documenting exactly how much he was drinking during the worst of it.
Matt, 43, and Emma, 50, have been married since 2008 and together for more than two decades. Emma is currently preparing for her debut on Strictly Come Dancing this weekend, and the couple share three children together — Isabelle, Ace, and Trixie.
What He Revealed on His Podcast
Speaking with Michelle Heaton, formerly of Liberty X, on his podcast On The Mend, the Busted band member described what it was like discovering the diary years after Emma had written it. According to Matt, Emma had quietly tracked his drinking toward the end of that period — noting what he’d had, and pointing out when he’d promised not to drink but did anyway.
He explained that he had no idea the diary even existed for around eight years, and reading it as a sober man was genuinely eye-opening — he realized what Emma had documented only represented a fraction of what was actually going on at the time.
Matt was candid about how deliberately he’d hidden the extent of his drinking, admitting he’d built specific routines and systems into his daily life specifically so he’d never find himself without access to alcohol — a level of planning that, looking back, made it clear just how deep the dependency had gone.
Not the First Time He’s Spoken Publicly About It
This isn’t new territory for Matt — he’s used his platform before to raise awareness around addiction and its impact on the people close to someone struggling with it. Back in 2023, he released a documentary about his experiences, and in an interview with the BBC at the time, he spoke about how anxious he felt at the thought of his eldest daughter eventually watching it and seeing that period of his life, and what her mother had gone through as a result. He said then that he believed being fully honest and open mattered more than avoiding an uncomfortable subject.