He was crowned King of the Jungle in 2006, but Matt Willis has now revealed he regrets ever signing up for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
The former Busted star, 42, who is married to TV presenter Emma Willis, 49, has said the fame which came with being King of the Jungle ‘spun me out’ and worsened his drink and drug addiction.
Matt made the candid confession this week as he reflected on the career-defining moment – admitting that while the ITV2 reality show boosted his profile, it left him struggling to cope behind the scenes.
‘I was thinking of a time when I lost my own narrative,’ Matt said on his podcast, On The Mend. ‘And the one thing that springs to mind the most was leaving I’m A Celebrity.’
At the time, Matt had just launched his solo career after Busted split but was devastated when his record label refused to release his album after the first two singles failed to make an impact.
‘I was in a pretty bad place,’ he recalled. ‘The record company basically weren’t going to release my solo album… They said, “You’ve got to do something to raise your profile. Will you go on I’m A Celebrity?” I went, “Yep, absolutely. Anything, please release my album”.’
He was crowned King of the Jungle in 2006, but Matt Willis has now revealed he regrets ever signing up for I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! (Pictured)
The former Busted star, 42, who is married to TV presenter Emma Willis, 49, has said the fame which came with being King of the Jungle ‘spun me out’ and worsened his drink and drug addiction
But what he hoped would be a career-saving move soon wreaked havoc on his mental health.
‘Once I came out of that show, I realised no one cared that I had a record out. Everywhere I went, they just wanted to talk about I’m A Celebrity. And it really bummed me out.’
The dad-of-three continued: ‘Before I went on that show, I was only really famous to Busted fans. Then I came out and everyone knew who I was.
‘When you’re in active addiction – which I was at the time – and you just want to hide, that’s the worst thing that can happen. Suddenly there were paps everywhere I went. I’d get in a cab and the driver would say, “Hello Matt”. It was such a weird experience.’
He added: ‘I realised I’d probably made a bit of a mistake going on that show. I should have been coming out feeling great because I won – but I didn’t.
‘I felt like I won the show but lost myself. I’d become known for being a celebrity rather than for my music.’
Matt, who at the height of his addiction was taking six grams of cocaine a day, said the intense public scrutiny made it harder to hide the extent of his problem.
‘I was a sneaky little drug addict who didn’t want everyone poking their nose into his life,’ he said. ‘It was a really strange place to be. I had no privacy. People were looking into areas of my life I didn’t want them to.’
Matt made the candid confession this week as he reflected on the career-defining moment – admitting that while the ITV2 reality show boosted his profile, it left him struggling to cope behind the scenes
‘I was thinking of a time when I lost my own narrative,’ Matt said on his podcast, On The Mend. ‘And the one thing that springs to mind the most was leaving I’m A Celebrity’
He also revealed how difficult the experience was for his now-wife, Emma.
‘We were about a year into our life together,’ he said. ‘If we were like where we are now, we’d have dealt with it much better. But back then, it just wasn’t a good place for me.’
After years of struggling with alcohol and cocaine Matt entered rehab in 2008, one month before he married Emma – who had issued him with an ultimatum about his substance abuse.
He has now been sober for several years. His 2023 BBC documentary, Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, won praise for its unflinching look at relapse, recovery and the impact on his family.
Speaking on his podcast, he reflected on how that film helped him ‘rewrite his story’: ‘I wanted to change the way people looked at addicts. I wanted people to go, “These are people who are struggling – how can we help them?” rather than dismissing them from society.’
He also discussed the process of making amends as part of his recovery – but admitted there’s one person he’s never formally apologised to: Emma.
‘When you do step work, you write down all the bad things you’ve done and go and make amends,’ he explained. ‘The one person I need to make amends to the most is Emma. My wife saw me at my darkest and stuck by me.
‘What I think people would be surprised about is I didn’t make a straightforward amends with her. I didn’t go and say, “I’m sorry”, because I don’t know what I would say. I don’t know if there’s enough words to do it justice and I didn’t want to not do it justice.’
After years of struggling with alcohol and cocaine Matt entered rehab in 2008, one month before he married Emma (Seen together in August)
He continued: ‘I was always like, when I feel like I’m in a good enough place, I’ll do it. And when I feel like I’m ready, and I feel like she’ll really appreciate it, I will do it. As time went on, I was like, actually, I think I’m doing it without having to go and say it.
‘It’s not because I’m wimping out… I think instead what I do is choose to be the man I am today for her. And I choose to turn up and I choose to keep promises that I give her. So I actually think I’m making amends to her every day.’
Matt admits that discussing his addiction with their children – Isabelle, 16, Ace, 13, and Trixie, nine – has been among the hardest parts of his recovery.
‘At some point, they’re like, “Why don’t you have a drink? Nanny does, Mummy does occasionally,” he said. ‘When do you tell a kid you’re an alcoholic? What do you say to that? It’s kind of a weird thing for a kid to hear.’
He added: ‘I’ve done it differently every time, but I think I’ve let them understand why I don’t and why, if I did, it wouldn’t be the same person that’s speaking to you now.
‘Something happens to me when I take a drink or I do drugs, I change… everything that’s important in my life goes away. And the only thing that’s important is that. And I don’t want to be that guy ever again, especially for you, because I love you and I want to be the best version that I can for you.’
Now, Matt says he’s finally found peace. ‘Taking control doesn’t mean pretending everything’s fine,’ he said. ‘It means saying, “This is where I am, and I get to decide what happens next”.’
