Love Is Blind UK hosts Emma and Matt Willis say the secret to their 17-year marriage is "sticking through the s***".
Together, they are hosting the second series of Love Is Blind — where contestants hope to fall in love without ever having met their partner face-to-face. As one of the most popular couples in UK showbiz, the married presenters are a good fit for the role of the hosts.
Emma and Matt, who tied the knot in 2008, confessed that everyone wants to know: What's the secret to their successful marriage?
Initially, the couple were stumped for an answer despite having been married for 17 years and raising their three children together: Isabelle, Ace and Trixie.
"Do you know what it is? You feel like you're going, well, we have the answers to love!" Matt told Yahoo UK.
Expanding on his answer, the Busted star explained, "The thing is, you balls it up on the way [with love]. It's... are you ready to go through the hard times? To go through it, I think.
"Because it's not easy being with someone for many, many years, but at the end of the day, do you love that person? And do you like them? And do you want to be with them forever?"
Emma said: "Are you willing to stick through the s***?" Then she added: "And so far, we have."
Matt agreed: "Absolutely, absolutely."
What isn't a secret is how much fun Emma and Matt are having working on Love Is Blind together. They were already hooked on the franchise after watching the fourth series of the American version of Love Is Blind before landing their jobs on the UK version of the show.
"We love it, don't we?" Emma said. Playfully, she added to her husband: "You love it."
Cheeky Matt pretended to have to say: "I do love it. I love it very much." But he did agree: "I genuinely do, I genuinely do [love it]."
Love Is Blind UK casting
There are 28 brave singletons putting their hearts on the line for the second series of Love Is Blind UK. And that comes with an element of risk.
At first, Matt is sure a legally binding wedding is the "biggest risk" of taking part in the show. Interestingly, in Channel 4's Married At First Sight UK, the weddings are not legally binding. Netflix's Love Is Blind is offering the singletons the chance to get married for real on TV.
Matt said that a wedding is "the ultimate declaration of love". "It's like I choose you forever," he said. "There's nothing really out there that does that... It's a massive thing. It's like I choose you above everyone else forever... That's a pretty big thing."
Emma identified heartbreak being a risk for those involved. "Heartbreak is the biggest risk, isn't it?" She said. "Because you're going on there wanting what the show can provide, and that is hopefully to find somebody that you can fall in love with and spend the rest of your life with and get married to. It does work, but obviously not in every single case, so I would imagine heartbreak is the biggest [risk]."
Matt agreed with his wife: "Yeah, I think so [heartbreak is the biggest risk], because they do put themselves out there — and you have to."
Behind the scenes, the presenters revealed the great lengths Netflix bosses go to ensure that everyone on the show is genuinely looking for love.
"Obviously, occasionally someone slips through the gaps [who isn't genuinely looking for love]," Matt said. "And everyone's so surprised because they're so rigorous with casting. We know what we want on this show. We want to find people that want to get married. And they so good casting, aren't they?
"They really go to town. They really get everything from them. So they know where they are."
Emma agreed: "They really want to find people that genuinely wanna do it because if you don't, it's a waste of time for everybody really, cos that's not the objective of the show.
"And as we said, it's a legal wedding at the end of it, so you can't really go, 'Oh yeah, I'm gonna go on that show and I'll pretend to fall in love with someone and pretend to get married to them' cos it's not pretend. It's actually real [where they legally get married]!"
Cheeky Matt added: "If you want to go on something and you know, and look good in a swimsuit, there are other shows you can go on that are more suited for you."
