Busted bass player Matt Willis went to school with Amy Winehouse and, as adults, they continued to spend time together.
His penchant for clubbing was likely a good thing for his band’s image, wrote The Guardian, in a 2023 interview with the musician.
But his taste for booze went too far. In 2023, he made what the newspaper calls a “bitingly honest” documentary about his struggles with cocaine and alcohol, and his eventual recovery.
His partner Emma used to keep a diary to track his drinking, and feared for his life. But in among it all, one of his most painful regrets has to do with his old school pal Amy.
Busted bassist Matt Willis’ ‘big regret’ after Amy Winehouse died
Amy Winehouse and Matt Willis – on screen on Michael McIntyre’s Big Show tonight (February 22) – went to school together, along with other famous names such as Lee Ryan, Tom Fletcher, Billie Piper and Jodi Albert.
They went to the independent fee-paying Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London.
In fact, Amy and Matt were “really good mates”, he once told the Mirror. They kissed once, but it was “just a bit of silliness”.
After they left school, he and Amy continued to hang out together. Later, after he got sober, he told The Guardian, she stopped wanting him around.
He, too, was disinclined to “be around her and her mates”, he said. “I was trying to keep myself as safe as possible.”
I always think, would she, if I’d really tried? That’s a big regret for me.
She died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the young age of 27, and Matt wonders if he could have helped her onto the right track.
“She wouldn’t have listened. But I always think, would she, if I’d really tried? That’s a big regret for me.”
His alcohol and drug abuse almost cost him his wedding
Matt Willis married Emma Griffiths in 2008. But in the lead up to the wedding, the romance appears to have been on shaky grounds.
He was drinking heavily and using drugs in order to function while inebriated, he told The Guardian in 2023.
“I couldn’t stop. I would try to get to 12 o’clock [without a drink]. I would be shaking and feeling like I was going to pass out. Once I started, I couldn’t stop, and then I was using drugs to function. We had a month till the wedding and the state I was in, she wasn’t going to marry me.”
He checked himself into a rehabilitation centre of his own accord and managed to stay sober on his wedding day, then relapsed.
Emma gave birth to their first child, Isabelle, in 2009. When she was eight months old, Matt had an epiphany that motivated him to stay sober. He’d realised that he was going to be a terrible father if he kept using.
That was, until Busted reunited in 2015. He relapsed again and things became “very difficult” between him and Emma.
Fortunately, he’s past the worst of it now, and understands his vulnerabilities better than ever. He talks openly and at length about his struggles with addiction in the documentary Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction.
In the UK, Action on Addiction is available on 0300 330 0659. Contact Samaritans on freephone 116 123, or you can get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Matt’s on Michael McIntyre’s Big Show on Saturday February 22 on BBC One at 6.40pm.
Read more: Emma and Matt Willis reveal major change in their parenting after ‘terrifying’ discovery in new documentary
What do you think of this story? Let us know by leaving a comment on our Facebook page @entertainmentdailyfix.
