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Busted star Matt Willis has divulged some details about his “mortifying” wedding proposal to wife Emma Willis.
The singer and bassist appeared with TV presenter Emma on the NewlyWeds podcast, which is hosted by Made in Chelsea star Jamie Laing and his wife and former co-star, Sophie Habboo.
During the latest episode, Matt, 41, revealed that he took Emma to Venice, Italy, for her birthday with the intention of proposing in the City of Romance.
The initial plan was to propose in a restaurant. However, after hearing some English fans singing Busted songs at a nearby table, he ended up taking her to the Rialto Bridge, the oldest of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal.
“I was like, ‘Right, this isn’t going to work, so what do I do now?’” Matt said of the moment he heard Busted fans breaking out into song.
“So then we had to walk around Venice trying to find somewhere to propose, and that’s not my vibe. I don’t know where I’m going.”
Emma, 48, who presents new show Love Is Blind UK alongside her husband, added: “We had dinner and he was really weird, he suddenly turned before we even went to dinner, he didn't really talk to me, he was a bit twitchy.
“And I was like, this is really f***ed up, if he's bought me here to finish with me, do you know what I mean? And I thought it's either that, which he's not that kind of person, so please god no, or he's going to f***ing propose.”
She continued: “So I was trying to be an investigator, and I was trying to hold his hand, and rubbing his legs, (to see) if I could feel anything in his pocket, but he used to have a asthma inhaler.
“And I was like, I think that's his asthma, and then he was like, let's go for a walk down here.”
Emma said she was beginning to get frustrated as they wandered around Venice, until they ended up at the Ponte di Rialto: “We walked to the top of it, and he just got all serious, and I'm like what are you doing?”
Matt then pulled out the box containing the ring and began to get down on one knee, prompting Emma to grab him around the neck.
“I went, don't you f***ing dare. I think I said, go down there, because there's loads of people around and they're all going to look at us and oh my god how embarrassing,” she recalled.
“But not like don't propose, just how mortifyingly embarrassing, and then he opened the box, and the ring had flopped out of the little holder.
“I think if you're not stereotypically romantic staring into each other's... I mean, he stares at me all the time, and I'm like what the f*** are you looking at? That was our proposal.”
Elsewhere during the podcast, Emma admitted that she wasn’t a fan of her now-husband’s band when they first met, but said Busted songs have since become an “integral part” of the beginning of their relationship.
The full episode of NewlyWeds with Matt and Emma is available now.
The UK edition of Love is Blind has received mixed reviews from critics. In a two-star review for The Independent, Ellie Muir wrote that Matt and Emma looked as though they would “rather be anywhere else but here”.
“Everything is copied and pasted from the US edition, minus the accents,” she wrote. “Rinse and repeat. The Willises are essentially reading from the same script as the Lacheys, delivering the same unimaginative one-liners with the same sing-songy intonation.”
Additional reporting by Press Association
