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Matt Willis has admitted he regrets going on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, despite walking away the victor of the ITV show.
The 42-year-old Busted member – who currently hosts Love is Blind UK with wife Emma Willis – went in for the sixth series of the reality show and was crowned King of the Jungle in 2006.
However, he has now shared that the win ‘spun him out’, as the heightened celebrity that came with it was difficult to deal with.
Describing it as the moment he ‘lost the narrative’, Matt explained how he was already in a ‘bad place’ before signing up for the show.
In the midst of pursuing a solo career, after Busted had disbanded in 2005, he said his label was refusing to release his album after a series of disappointing singles. Their advice was to go on the show in order to raise his profile.
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‘I realised I probably made a bit of a mistake going in that show,’ the Year 3000 hitmaker said, speaking on the On The Mend podcast.
‘That’s the funny thing, because I won, I should be coming out going – whatever I set out to achieve, that was the end goal, you won the show, that’s amazing. But I didn’t feel like that.’
He continued: ‘I felt like I won the show but lost myself, which is a very, very strange headspace to be in. I realised I’d become known for being a celebrity rather than for what I wanted to be known for, which was my music.’
Matt opened up about his drug addiction in the 2023 BBC documentary Fighting Addiction, in which he said he can’t bring himself to watch his old TV interviews.
The singer detailed the pressures and difficulties of shooting to fame at a young age, amid ongoing struggles with cocaine and alcohol.
He looked back at a particular interview, on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross in 2004, saying: ‘That was hardest for me to watch because I’m looking at myself and I’m 20 years old or something and I’m obviously off my face.’
During the hour-long feature, Matt reflected on his most recent relapse, which had been five years prior, during a reunion tour with his Busted bandmates James Bourne and Charlie Simpson.
He first got sober in 2008, the year he married Emma, but relapsed several times over the years. He’s now in recovery and has spoken about his hopes of one day opening a rehab centre available to all.
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