Love is Blind has returned early for reality TV fans, though not in the form U.S. viewers have come to know. This August, Netflix debuted Love is Blind: UK, the latest installment in the franchise in which eligible singles sign up to fall in love and (potentially) marry someone they meet "sight unseen."
To spearhead the series, the streaming giant found an alluring Love Is Blind: UK cast of 30 singles, set up pods and couples vacations in locations across Europe, and recruited two hosts who are familiar faces to TV fans across the pond. Emma and Matt Willis are the hosts and British stand-ins for Nick and Vanessa Lachey on Love Is Blind: UK—and not only have the married couple and parents been together for nearly 20 years—but they also have extensive reality TV experience. They've quickly become reasons to watch the series (along with the relationship drama of couples like Bobby and Jasmine, and Nicole and Benaiah), in part because they are not afraid to open up about what makes a decades-long marriage work. Read on to learn more about Love Is Blind: UK hosts Matt and Emma Willis and their touching love story.
Matt Willis is a member of the English band Busted.
Matt Willis, 41, is a London-born musician who rose to fame as a member and co-founder of the English band Busted, dubbed a boy band in the early 2000s but today is recognized as a pop-punk band. He was a bassist and co-vocalist, along with members Charlie Simpson and James Bourne. The BRIT Award-winning trio made their debut in 2000 and went on to sell over five million records worldwide, with four U.K. number-one singles, before they disbanded in 2005.
Since then, Matt has released solo music and worked as a TV personality and actor. He won season 6 of the reality competition I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Outta Here!, and his acting credits include the 2014 revival of Birds of a Feather, a short stint on the British soap operas EastEnders and Casualty, and several theatrical roles including Footloose, Wicked, and Waitress.
Matt has also been vocal about his history with addiction in the mid-2000s. In 2023, he was the subject of the BBC documentary Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, and he also started a podcast called "On the Mend."Describing the project on Instagram, he wrote, "I’m going to be exploring some of the different kinds of addictions there are, and chat to some people who have gone through them, and I also get to talk some experts on how best to recover."
Emma Willis is a famous broadcaster and former model.
Emma Willis (née Griffiths), 48, was born in Birmingham, England, and began modeling at the age of 15. She's best known as a TV and radio broadcaster, who began her career presenting on MTV in 2002. Since then, she has presented on British daytime and reality shows including This Morning, The Voice: UK, Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, and the BRIT Awards. She also hosted two seasons of The Circle UK, putting her one degree away from Netflix years before Love is Blind: UK.
Matt and Emma Willis have been married for almost 20 years.
Emma and Matt met and began dating all the way back in 2004. In a recent interview with The Guardian, they recalled meeting each other at MTV while Emma was working as a presenter, with Emma being the one to pursue Matt and get his number. The couple got engaged three years later during a vacation in Venice, Italy, and they were married in 2008 at Rushton Hall in Northamptonshire, per The Sun. They share three children: Isabelle, born in 2009, Ace, born in 2011, and Trixie, born in 2016.
The couple often working together, sharing presenting duties on shows ranging from I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Outta Here! (the two seasons after Matt won), to the 2008 BRIT Awards, to occasional appearances at the BAFTAs. Emma also appeared in Fighting Addiction, where she opened up about the effects that Matt's history with drug use and rehab had on their marriage.
Speaking with The Guardian, Emma said of their relationship: "Matt and I are always working on our marriage. The wedding isn’t the destination, it’s the lasting part that is. As we’ve gotten older and more mature and settled, we have realized that as long as we communicate, we can avoid sitting on resentments or creating the kind of environment that leads to getting divorced. I won’t allow that to happen to us—and I won’t let him do it either!"
