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Celebrity power couple Emma and Matt Willis have opened up about therapy helping their marriage ahead of a powerful BBC docuseries.
The former Big Brother host, 49, and Busted star, 41, married in 2008 and share three children together.
During their time in the spotlight, Emma and Matt have candidly opened up about difficulties they’ve faced, including in a 2022 documentary titled: Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction.
Now, they’re teaming up with therapists to explore how they can help people navigate the challenges that modern life throws their way, and struggling from mental health conditions like anxiety.
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life follows various people across the country experiencing therapy, many for the first time.
Along the way, Matt and Emma share their own experiences with therapy, including how it helped their marriage.
In an exclusive interview with Metro ahead of the series airing, Emma revealed that she thinks the biggest public misconception about their marriage is that people think it’s ‘perfect’.
‘I don’t know if people have that opinion about us,’ Matt replied, before adding: ‘I got told that other people’s opinions are none of my business.’
Speaking about his own experiences with therapy and his desire to front the four-part series, the musician explained: ‘I think we have an affinity towards therapy.
‘I’ve had a lot of it, it’s been an important part of my life since about 21 and at different times I’ve had really big moments in therapy. Personally, I’ve had massive breakthroughs with therapy.’
He added that he and Emma went through couples therapy a few years ago, saying it was ‘the most incredible thing that’s happened in our marriage’.
He went on: ‘I think there’s a stigma attached to therapy, you know? For instance, if you mention couples therapy, everyone thinks, “Oh, you’re in real trouble”. And that wasn’t the case with us.’
Matt added that he and Emma managed to resolve certain parts of their marriage that needed slightly more help, and they learnt to communicate far better.
‘We thought we were pretty good at communicating, but actually, turns out we weren’t so great, we maybe weren’t saying things that we should have been or weren’t saying things in the way that they would have been best said.’
Emma agreed, saying: ‘We’re both quite sensitive aren’t we, so we’re always very aware of not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings, when actually it just stopped us talking about certain things, and if we’d have talked about certain things, we’d probably have realized that it wouldn’t hurt the other one’s feelings.’
She said the realisations they came to through therapy included the reminder that they were both there because they loved each other and wanted to be together, and were ultimately aiming towards the same goal of having a great marriage.
‘The real goal is to understand each other, rather than to prove a point or win. You actually just want to understand each other so you can move forward,’ Matt said.
Emma initially started going to therapy after a suggestion from Matt, unknowing at the time that she may have needed it.
Having undergone a recent surgery, she compared having therapy to living with a hole in her heart, saying: ‘I just didn’t realize that actually I needed it. That in itself was the biggest realization – that you can go through life – much like with a hole in your heart – not knowing anything about it.
‘Throughout your life, thinking that you are fine and you don’t need it, and maybe you’re one of the lucky ones that don’t, but a lot of people do.’
The Voice UK host revealed last month she had recently recovered from keyhole surgery after learning she had a hole in her heart.
Having returned to the public eye, Emma opened up about her physical health, admitting she mistook her symptoms for other things.
She explained: ‘I found out because I had some tests last year and they found that I had an enlargement on one side [of my heart], and from there… I was referred to a cardiologist, and he was like, “Yeah, that’s not right I don’t think, let’s have a look what’s going on”.’
In January, Emma was told by the doctor that there was a possibility but that it was ‘probably not’ a hole in her heart, as she continued: ‘So we walked into my appointment thinking that it probably wasn’t. And he was like, “Oh no, you do,” so that was it really.’
Emma initially questioned if she needed surgery because she’d had the hole since birth, but was informed she definitely did.
She added: ‘I have had symptoms in the last few years that I thought were age and hormonal but they actually weren’t, they were something else.’
Having shared this part of her personal life and health journey with her followers, Emma and Matt are now hoping their programme will raise awareness of the importance of people ‘lightening the load’ and starting conversations about mental health.
‘Therapy is a very vulnerable place to be, you’re airing your soul in a way and speaking your truth,’ Matt shared, as he and Emma explained the importance of giving viewers and contributors on the show their own personal journeys with mental health and therapy.
‘I think they understand we’ve been through this and we’ve benefited from it, and we were really open with them, they were really open with us,’ he said.
‘I think that was the most amazing thing I got from this – it’s watching the growth that can happen from these things, watching resilience in real time, watching people go through something, learn something in the therapy room, have a light bulb moment, and implement that into their life and move forward.
‘I think we can get trapped in this mindset that I’m this kind of person, or I’m just quite anxious, or I just have a negative opinion of myself, or I don’t think I’m very good, or whatever that is, whatever this thing we think of ourselves, and we think that’s just the way we are, when, actually, you don’t have to be that way. You don’t have to struggle through this stuff forever. You can change your mind. You can change the way you think and change what you think about yourself.’
He candidly revealed his own breakthrough in therapy came when he realised ‘You are not your thoughts’, saying: ‘It’s a big thing for me, because otherwise I can get caught up in those thoughts and they can spiral, like I become really negative about stuff, about myself, and that’s been a massive change for me and allowed me to like myself a bit more – dare I say – love myself a bit more.’
Need support for your mental health?
You can contact mental health charity Mind on 0300 123 3393 or text them on 86463.
Mind can also be reached by email at [email protected].
The Love Is Blind presenters stressed their show is a ‘two-way street’ as they share their experiences with the contributors while also raising awareness.
Emma said: ‘If we’re asking other people to open up and share. And the aim of the show is that people start opening up and sharing, so we can’t then sit there and not open up and share.’
Matt added: ‘For me, this is about reaching that person who might be struggling or going through something and doesn’t know what to do, or might not know that they could benefit from something and it could possibly change their trajectory.’
He continued: ‘I hope it gets people talking and thinking that if you’re struggling, there are ways to help you, and if you see something that resonates with you, and you talk about it with somebody, that’s a big thing, talking about something is always the first step, admitting you need help is a big step.’
Emma highlighted the power of TV in being able to help people in this way, citing how Stephen Graham’s Adolescence recently opened up massive conversations.
‘Hopefully this does a similar thing… hopefully it starts to normalise it, so that the stigma of [therapy] goes and that people feel much more comfortable with talking and being vulnerable and asking for help, wherever they need to source it from.
‘The real thing is that it can connect to people and hopefully make a difference.’
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer on Tuesday, May 13
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