Emma Willis: ‘There are people you should absolutely say no to having on television’
Over the past two decades, the immensely likeable TV host has carved out a place as one of the most reliable, versatile presenters on the small screen. She tells Jacob Stolworthy about why ‘The Voice’ has stood the test of time, what she really thinks of controversial reality contestants, and working with husband Matt Willis
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For someone who regularly appears on live TV, Emma Willis has a commendable command of the F-word. “I’m not putting on a facade, so if you don’t like me, that’s quite f***ing personal,” the Voice UK presenter says, speaking from her Hertfordshire home. There’s been a lot of stuff over the years that – to borrow her parlance – has f***ed her off. “There was superficial criticism in my thirties, like, ‘What the f*** are you wearing?’ or ‘Your hair looks s***.’ And there was the, ‘Is she pregnant?’ – no, I’ve just got three kids and I don’t go to the gym every day. Then the heavier stuff comes, like, ‘I f***ing hate her’, and that can really start to affect you.”
And yet, Willis tells me all of this while wearing a big grin. “I’m just being me,” she explains, mock incredulity inflecting her Birmingham accent. The 48-year-old is smiling because she has reached a liberating – and aptly titled – stage of her life. “I’m finally in my f***-it phase! I’d heard about it and wanted it so badly because I’m a chronic people-pleaser, but I’m living it and it’s wonderful.”
Willis’s live broadcasting career began in 2002 when she was just 26, so no one could say Willis hasn’t earned the right to care less. Since the host ditched a modelling career to join “TV presenting university” MTV, bouncing around interviewing early-Noughties pop stars alongside fellow alumni Laura Whitmore and Melvin Odoom, the immensely likeable host has become TV producers’ most reliable booking: she’s as comfortable chit chatting on the sofa of This Morning as she is taking on reality behemoths like Big Brother and Love Is Blind – the first UK outing of which was one of Netflix’s biggest hits in August. (She hosted the show alongside her husband, Busted star Matt Willis.) Not even the sexist trolls of social media – of which she’s had her fair few – can bother her any more. But don’t call her the Queen of Reality TV; “that’s Davina,” she demurs, with a firm hand.
Her appearance on The Voice UK is easily where Willis is most recognisable. Some might be surprised to learn that the talent show, which started life on BBC One before jumping to ITV, is now on its 13th series – just two shy of the 15 outings The X Factor reached. The series quietly holds a reputation for being one of the most prolific staples of the Saturday night schedules, with Willis crediting the show’s “phenomenal” team of producers with protecting contestants. She thinks she knows why it has stayed afloat where other singing talent shows have sunk.
“We’re not there to stitch people up,” she says, alluding to the fact that The X Factor routinely put forward “joke” contestants in the knowledge they’d be ripped to shreds by the judges. “It’s not about novelty acts or poking fun at people. We’re there to support, encourage and hopefully push people on to doing something they really love.”
The Voice’s format is renowned. Famous mentors – Sir Tom Jones, Will.i.am, LeAnn Rimes and, joining this year as the show’s first judging duo, McFly’s Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones – listen to an aspiring singer’s audition with their backs turned. Based on the contestant’s voice alone, they can hit a button that turns their chair around, thus nominating themselves to become that contestant’s mentor. Despite being on air for 10 years, the series has found just one chart-topping star: Becky Hill. However, Willis bats off suggestions that The Voice’s failure to find a sensation that rivals the global renown of, say, Harry Styles hampers its credibility. If anything, she thinks The Voice showcases a fairer representation of the music industry.
“I know we always get that thing of, ‘Yeah, but have you ever had someone who’s been a worldwide superstar?’ Well, no, ’cause that’s really f***ing hard to do,” she says, bluntly. “In those days, Simon Cowell had a record label and he could make those things happen. We don’t have that. We have people who have lived it, who know it, who can coach the people who are there, and who can hopefully give them a bit of insight into what might be ahead. And really what is ahead is a f*** tonne of work and a lot of graft and very little thanks. I’m married to a musician so I know how difficult that can be.”
Willis describes presenting The Voice as “easy” – after all, she gets to hear daily anecdotes shared by Sir Tom flipping Jones. “I know this sounds real cringe, but it’s also really joyful to watch – and there are very few shows I do that I can sit and watch with my kids. I certainly couldn’t do that with Big Brother.”
Ah, Big Brother. Willis began hosting Channel 5’s reboot of the reality series titan in 2013, overseeing six civilian series and 11 celebrity versions. But it was the final one of these, in 2018, that saw Willis take on her most daunting task as a presenter. An incident, dubbed “punchgate” by the tabloids, saw former Emmerdale star Roxanne Pallett falsely accuse Coronation Street’s Ryan Thomas of physically assaulting her during a play fight. Thomas maintained his innocence but Pallett, appearing to forget cameras had captured the moment, doubled down and urged producers to remove him from the house. It became the second most-complained about moment in Big Brother history, behind the Jade Goody-Shilpa Shetty race row 11 years earlier.
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Viewers, concerned that – had the cameras had not been rolling – Thomas’s life would have been ruined by the false accusation, were furious, and demanded Pallett be held accountable. So when the soap star voluntarily quit the series, which Thomas went on to win, Willis was tasked with grilling her on the subject without softballing the questions. The host bristles while recalling this interview, branding it the “biggest challenge” she’s faced in her career.
“I think when you are hosting shows like that there’s obviously gonna be controversy in some way and, even if it’s not down to you, you are the person that is held accountable for it in the press because you’re the face of it.”
I know this sounds real cringe, but it’s also really joyful to watch
She takes a considered pause.
“The Roxanne Pallett experience… things like that are really hard to navigate and there’s a line that you have to straddle. We’d all watched what happened and I think to do everybody justice, you have to ask certain questions. And you want to give people the opportunity to be accountable for their actions. But also, you can’t bully them. It wasn’t for me to pick her apart or to push her to a place where she was really uncomfortable, but I also had to do my job. It’s not my job to be an a***hole to somebody, it’s my job to ask.”
Willis was praised for the interview, which saw her repeatedly push Pallett when she gave vague answers about her intentions. “I wanted honesty from her but there were certain answers where I was like, ‘I don’t think anyone’s really understanding where that’s coming from.’ But I think we handled that with the right tone.”
Another knotty moment for Willis arrived in 2016 when she interviewed Winston McKenzie, the former boxer and culture spokesperson for Ukip. Past homophobic comments – he has expressed the view that gay adoption is ”child abuse” – made the decision to book him as a housemate a low moment for the series. The inclusion of such controversial celebrities in reality shows can often place presenters in tough spots. In the past, when contentious figures have been booked, it’s the hosts who have been the ones to face the wrath of viewers. Willis does not think holding presenters accountable for decisions made by producers is entirely fair, although she acknowledges that entertainment shows must have “some form of responsibility” when it comes to who they’re putting on screen.
“There are people in the world that you absolutely should say no to and not have on television,” she states. “There are a couple of Big Brother contestants that I was not on board with. I’m not gonna say any names because why give them column inches? But there were some where my views didn’t align with theirs whatsoever and it was really difficult to be neutral. You sometimes don’t want to be; you wanna go, ‘You’re a f***ing d***!’ But there’s sometimes much more power in letting them speak for themselves and showing their true colours than getting into a slanging match.”
Willis might be a dab hand when asking the questions, but she’s less used to being in the hot seat. It was admirable, then, that she decided to switch it up for a deeply personal cause. In 2023, she featured in a documentary that saw her husband, with whom she has three children, open up about his struggles with addiction. Matt’s alcoholism saw him check into rehab – the first of four times – six months into their relationship in 2006. The plan was initially to just focus on Matt’s journey, but the project slowly coalesced into being an exploration of the pressures addiction can put on loved ones, too.
“The documentary wasn’t meant to be the documentary that we all watched – it was meant to be just about Matt and his experiences and recovery. Then they said, ‘Would you talk to us for a couple of days?’ and I was like, ‘If you need that viewpoint, then yes.’ When we got to the end of it, it was a different thing to how it started.”
Willis says she had initial concerns as she “always thought it’s not really my story to tell”, but states: “Actually, the more we’ve lived through that and got to this point, I’ve realised, yes, it’s his experience but that experience is also mine – and also the experience of millions in some way, shape or form.”
The result was Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, a documentary that’s currently available to stream on BBC iPlayer. “We were over the moon with it when we saw it. I mean, we were f***ing terrified. It was really exposing and we felt vulnerable so we ran off and hid on holiday the day before it came out. Then we were blown away by the response. Just the amount of people who will be open and tell you their story – I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”
After all they’ve been through, does she feel like they’ve found their happy ending?
“It’ll be a happy ending if we die together in each other’s arms. That’ll be the perfect ending to the story, ’cause who knows what the f***’s gonna happen, right? I feel like we’re in the best place we’ve ever been in, which is amazing, really. And it’s just gonna get better.”
And, of course, it helps that Willis is in her self-proclaimed f***-it phase.
“Yes! When you get to your mid-to-late forties, you’re like, ‘F*** the worry and f*** the stress.’ You can’t control what people think, so why try? You’re just wasting energy you’re never gonna get back – at this age, you need all of it you can get.”
‘The Voice’ returns on Saturday, 31 August, on ITV1 and ITVX. Willis can also be seen on ‘Emma Willis: Delivering Babies’, which starts on 5 September at 9pm on U&W
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