admitted that he can’t bear to look at his old TV interviews due to the extent of his drug addiction.
The Busted musician, 40, is exploring his struggles with substance abuse in new BBC documentary Fighting Addiction, which also features his wife Emma Willis, 47.
The Crashed The Wedding hitmaker first became sober in 2008, the year he married Emma, but, including after they had their children: .
During the hour-long feature, Matt reflects on his most recent relapse, which was five years ago, during his band Busted, the noughties pop band behind hits like Year 3000.
In 2004, Matt – along with his bandmates and – appeared on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross to discuss their upcoming album 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 goes into detail about the pressures and difficulties of getting famous at a young age and looking back at that particular interview Matt 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.’
Matt has also previously spoken about feeling ‘ashamed’ about being making her think she was crazy.’
‘I’m so ashamed of that,’ he confessed to ‘And I never want her to feel like that again.’
Admitting Emma had come close to leaving him ‘many times,’ Matt said the last relapse was particularly difficult as they now had three children, and after eight years sober thought his issues with drugs and drink was ‘behind us.’
Matt again sought help and has now been sober for years – and ahead of Busted touring again this year says his bandmates ‘know what I want and what I don’t want’ and will look out for him.
Emma, too, has spoken out about her husband’s past struggles with addiction, including 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.
