Matt Willis had opened up about his secret relapse five years ago as wife Emma admitted “it was the last thing I expected”.
The 39-year-old Busted icon is set to appear on TV screens as part of his new BBC documentary which will explore his struggles with substance abuse. The docu, called Fighting Addiction, also features his wife and telly legend Emma Willis.
Matt Willis and wife Emma open up his relapse
Matt, who shot to fame as a member of Busted in the 2000s, first became sober in 2008 – the same year he married Emma. However, he relapsed several times, including after they welcomed their children, Isabelle, 13, 10-year-old Ace and Trixie, six.
And in emotional scenes from the documentary Matt opens up about his most recent relapse – which was five years ago during a Busted reunion tour. He said: “Within a month I was doing six grams, bang, bang, bang, bang, on my own every [explicit] day and not coming home until 3am in the morning, pretending I was working on my album. I wasn’t really writing I was making [bleep] music in the studio doing coke.”
He added: “It was straight back to that shame cycle, the shame of relapse, the same of letting everyone down, the shame of using uncontrollably trying to stop and not being able to.”
Emma Willis ‘didn’t expect’ Matt’s relapse
Hearing her husband open up, Emma struggled to hold back the tears. She explained how she felt “flabbergasted” that he had relapsed. She said: “I didn’t expect it. I think because he had been doing so well for such a long time. It was the last thing I thought.”
In the film he also speaks to other addicts as well as a therapist. The professional suggests that his difficult childhood, where his parents divorced when he was just three, could have played a part.
Matt makes heartbreaking confession about being a ‘terrible father
Earlier his year, Matt broke down in tears as he recounted the impact his drink and drugs problem had on his parenting.
Chatting to Giovanna Fletcher on her Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, the musician and father of three said: “When Isabelle was born I stayed clean for a while and then I relapsed again when she was about six months old. I missed Emma’s birthday, she was in Birmingham and I was doing a TV show at the time. It was the wrap party. Someone just handed me a glass of champagne and I was off.”
“I turned up at [Emma’s] parents’ house at four in the morning off my head. It was the worst. The next morning I walked down and I knew what I’d done.”
His voice started to break as he added: “Emma told me that I’d missed Isabelle crawling for the first time. She crawled that night and I was in a pub Watford with strangers. And it dawned on me that I was going to be a terrible father. It really hit me. It hit me like a tonne of bricks. That for me was the turning point.”
Read more: Emma Willis and husband Matt team up for new TV project
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