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. Recently, Emma revealed that she’d undergone surgery after discovering that she had a ‘hole in her heart’.
During their time in the spotlight, the celebrity power couple has 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 with mental health conditions like anxiety.
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life follows people across the country going to therapy – many for the first time – while Matt and Emma also share how it was beneficial for their own relationship.
Emma admitted to Metro that while members of the public might think that their marriage is ‘perfect’, this is actually a big misconception.
‘I don’t know if people have that opinion about us,’ Matt chimed in. ‘I got told that other people’s opinions are none of my business.’
For Matt, having therapy has been a 20-year journey for him, as it’s been an ‘important part of his life’ since he was around 21 years old.
‘Personally, I’ve had massive breakthroughs with therapy,’ he revealed.
Then, a few years ago, when he and Emma went to couples therapy together, it was ‘the most incredible thing that’s happened in our marriage’.
‘I think there’s a stigma attached to therapy. If you mention couples therapy, everyone thinks, “Oh, you’re in real trouble”. And that wasn’t the case with us,’ he emphasised.
‘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, explaining that they’re ‘both quite sensitive’, and so they were conscious of ‘not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings’.
However, this fear prevented them from ‘talking about certain things’.
‘If we’d have talked about certain things, we’d probably have realised that it wouldn’t hurt the other one’s feelings, ‘ she stated.
Emma initially started going to therapy following a suggestion from her husband. At the time, she had no idea how much she would need it, comparing it to her recent discovery that she had a hole in her heart.
‘I just didn’t realise that actually I needed it. That in itself was the biggest realisation [about therapy]. That you can go through life – much like with a hole in your heart – not knowing anything about it,’ she outlined.
‘Throughout your life, thinking that you are fine and you don’t need it. 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 that she had a hole in her heart.
Emma opened up to Metro about how she originally misinterpreted her symptoms.
‘I found out because I had some tests last year and they found that I had an enlargement on one side [of my heart],’ she recollected.
‘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 [at] what’s going on.”‘
In January, Emma was told by the doctor that there was a possibility that it was ‘probably not’ a hole in her heart.
‘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,’ she said.
Emma initially questioned if she needed surgery because she’d had the hole since birth, but was informed that she definitely did.
‘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 told us.
Referencing the contributors on the show who also go on journeys of undergoing therapy, he stated: ‘I think they understand we’ve been through this and we’ve benefited from it. We were really open with them, they were really open with us.’
Matt stressed how people can get ‘trapped in a mindset’ of thinking that they’re a certain type of person, or having a negative mindset about themselves.
‘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 added.
The musician experienced a breakthrough in therapy when he came to the realisation that ‘You are not your thoughts.’
‘It’s a big thing for me, because otherwise I can get caught up in those thoughts and they can spiral. I become really negative about stuff, about myself,’ he shared.
‘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 info@mind.org.uk.
The Love Is Blind presenters acknowledged that their show is a ‘two-way street’ – so if the contributors are going to share their experiences, they will as well.
‘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,’ Emma said.
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 hopes that Change Your Mind, Change Your Life ‘gets people talking’, and that it encourages people to seek out someone to talk to if they need help. ‘Admitting you need help is a big step,’ he remarked.
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer on Tuesday, May 13
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