Matt Willis claimed that he can’t tolerate seeing past TV interviews because of the severity of his drug addiction.
The Busted musician, 40, discusses his experiences with substance misuse in the new BBC documentary Fighting Addiction, which also features his wife, Emma Willis, 47.
The Mishap The Wedding hitmaker originally went clean in 2008, the year he married Emma, but relapsed multiple times, including after their children, Isabelle, 13, Ace, 10, and Trixie, six, were born.
Throughout the hour-long documentary, Matt reflects on his most recent relapse, which occurred five years ago on a reunion tour with his band Busted, the noughties pop band responsible for singles such as Year 3000.
Matt went on Friday Night alongside Jonathan Ross in 2004 alongside his colleagues James Bourne and Charlie Simpson to discuss their impending record at the time.
Reflecting on that particular sit-down, he said: ‘That was hardest for me to watch because I’m looking at myself and I’m 20 years old or something and I’m obviously off my face.’
In the documentary, the star discusses the pressures and difficulties of becoming famous at a young age, and Matt said of the interview, ‘That was hardest for me to watch because I’m looking at myself and I’m 20 years old or something and I’m obviously off my face.’
Matt has previously stated that he is ‘ashamed’ of being ‘the maestro at gaslighting Emma, making her think she was insane.’
‘I’m so ashamed of that,’ he confessed to The Guardian. ‘And I never want her to feel like that again.’
Emma admitted she had considered leaving him’many times,’ Matt claimed the most recent relapse was especially challenging because they now had three children and assumed his drug and alcohol difficulties were ‘behind us.’
Matt got therapy again and has now been clean for years; ahead of Busted’s upcoming tour this year, he says his bandmates ‘know what I want and what I don’t want’ and will keep an eye out for him.
Emma has also spoken out about her husband’s former drug difficulties, telling The Telegraph in 2020 that she ‘wasn’t going to leave him…. I wanted to help him.’
She said at the time: ‘Your relationship progresses and you realise that there is a real issue, and it’s not just a young kid who has got a lot of money very quickly.
‘But until he realised it had to change, there’s nothing I could have done. Nothing.’
Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction will air on BBC One and iPlayer on Wednesday, 17 May at 9pm.
