ZONE 'I WAS GOING TO LOSE EVERYTHING'

Busted musician Matt Willis opens up about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction for a new BBC One documentary

- JEN PHARO 

Matt Willis is preparing for a new tour with his band Busted– and he’s terrified. The bassist and singer, 40, has battled with alcohol and drugs for as long as he can remember, and fears another relapse would end his marriage to his TV star wife Emma – and his life.

“Over the last two decades, I’ve relapsed repeatedly and been to rehab four times. I’m terrified of relapsing again,” admits Matt. “The thought of it is constantly in my head. I don’t know if I have it in me to get out of it again.”

Busted last toured in 2017, when Matt had been happily clean and sober for eight years and Emma was at home with their three children Isabelle, Ace and Trixie, who was just eight months old at the time.

“After one of our shows someone offered me a line of coke, and I was like, ‘Oh, cocaine wasn’t a problem for me, alcohol was my downfall,’” explains Matt. “Within a month I was doing six grams on my own every f**king day and not coming home until three in the morning pretending I was working on an album, which I wasn’t really writing, I was making s**t music in the studio doing coke.”

Now Matt is exploring what makes him an addict in a new documentary Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction and investigating how to avoid another crisis.

Emma and Matt married in 2008, soon after his visit to rehab. Emma, 47, says, “We’ve been together for 18 years. Sometimes I feel like I’ve got four kids instead of three. There’s been a lot of joy but equally it’s been incredibly heavy at times.”