My secret to looking this good at 47? Marry a younger man

Emma Willis thinks she might have cracked the secret to looking (and feeling) youthful, even once you’re peri-menopausal. The reply? Marry somebody seven years your junior.

After all, that is what Emma, 47 — who, over time, has introduced TV reveals from Big Brother and The Circle to The Voice — did when she hitched herself to Matt Willis, bassist with the band Busted, 15 years in the past.

‘People simply assume I’m Matt’s age, which is 40, and I’m like, ‘Yes! I’m!’ laughs Emma. ‘It’s a good thoughts trick, that is for certain.’ 

Yet marriage to Matt — father of their kids Isabelle, 14, Ace, 12 and Trixie, seven — has been removed from a breeze.

Earlier this yr, we came upon simply how powerful in a heartbreaking BBC documentary known as Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, which charted his decades-long wrestle with drug and alcohol habit. 

Matt has been clear and sober for greater than 5 years now, however admitted he was fearful of relapsing.

In the programme, which was nominated for a National Television Award, we noticed Emma within the couple’s spacious Hertfordshire house, studying the diary she stored within the run-up to their wedding ceremony in 2008. It listed, Emma mentioned sadly, ‘Notes of what I knew he had consumed’. 

She reads a couple of entries: ‘bottle of champagne… couple of wines… couple of wines… one other bottle of champagne and extra… and extra’, which means medication. Something was ‘consumed each single day with out fail’.

‘I used to drive round looking for him,’ she mentioned, holding again tears. There’d been years of relapses, the final when their youngest Trixie was ten months outdated. But, regardless of her grave misgivings, at this time she tells me her help did not waver.

‘I trusted my intestine. Most of the time it is my motto for all times and with Matt it labored. You may see in him he needed to be higher.’

It will need to have been devastating to revisit these tumultuous occasions within the documentary, but it surely has, she says, made the couple stronger.

‘There was an understanding we might had earlier than, however it’s now on one other stage,’ Emma says. 

‘It was a bizarre one as a result of we’re very shut anyway, however as a result of [Matt’s drug use] occurred so way back we had been like, “Everything’s good”, we hadn’t felt the necessity to deliver all of it again up.

‘But to give you the chance to replicate on what that point was like, with hindsight, was actually emotional and extremely arduous. 

‘Although it sounds bizarre, it was additionally therapeutic and good. Normally all the main target is on the addict and making an attempt to get that individual higher, so it was undoubtedly useful for Matt to see what it had been like for everybody else.’

In return, it made her recognize the hassle required for him to keep sober.

‘Over the years, I’ve most likely taken as a right that he is positive, as a result of that is how he seems on the skin. I hadn’t actually thought earlier than about how, in case you’re an addict, you’ve gotten to flip up each day.

‘I’ve discovered now, ‘Don’t take it as a right as a result of this is a course of that can final for ever’.’

The documentary ends with Matt — whom Emma first met when she interviewed him and his bandmates for MTV — warning her that Busted had been about to begin their reunion tour. 

Knowing he’d beforehand relapsed on tour, she smiles wryly. ‘I’m positive now,’ she says on-camera. ‘If I’m not I’ll inform you.’

That tour started at the beginning of this month. So how does she really feel now they’re truly on the street? Emma’s expression grows extra severe, however she speaks calmly and confidently.

‘Well, he has been on tour since [becoming sober], however [touring] is a time when your routine is out of whack. But the documentary actually opened everybody’s eyes. The band is now actually conscious and supportive.’

Despite their ups and downs, the couple are clearly in it for the lengthy haul. They have simply signed up to current a British model of the Netflix hit actuality present Love Is Blind, the place folks agree to marry somebody they’ve spoken to however by no means met in individual, which shall be broadcast subsequent yr.

Meanwhile, they take turns at holding the fort when the opposite is away with work. 

Soon Emma will start filming the second season of travelogue/cookery present The World Cook, with Fred Sirieix, the host of First Dates, and it will likely be Matt’s flip to be round for the youngsters.

They’re helped by Emma’s younger sister Becky who, with no kids of her personal, lives with the household of their sprawling £1.7 million house.

There’s additionally help from her mother and father Steve, a retired hospital postman, and Cathy, a maternity care assistant, who, in distinction to Matt’s household (his mother and father divorced when he was three and he had a ‘heated’ relationship together with his stepfather), have been married for practically 50 years, giving their daughter the blueprint for a steady marriage. Both labored at their native hospital in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.

Emma certified for a similar job as her mom so as to make her 4 acclaimed sequence of Delivering Babies. She nonetheless tries to return to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, the place it was filmed, for a couple of months annually.

‘It’s the life I used to be meant to have had and doing that job is a actual leveller,’ she says.

Emma’s ‘very regular’, in her phrases, upbringing makes her eminently relatable to a TV viewers, however for years it additionally left her feeling like she did not fairly deserve a glamorous job in TV.

 I’ve at all times been a people-pleaser, however now I’m higher at saying no

After all, she fell into that world unexpectedly at 15, after her mom despatched her image to a modelling company, who snapped her up. 

By 17, she had appeared in Vogue and modelled for Chanel and Gap. At 26 she was approached by MTV to turn into a presenter.

‘I lived a life that was not anticipated, in a world up to now faraway from what you thought was truly accessible to you. It does offer you imposter syndrome, since you’re like, ‘I should not be right here’. This was not my designated lane.’

Self-deprecating, and with a refreshingly dry sense of humour, Emma is sitting in a room shut to the studio the place she’s having her pictures taken, sporting white trousers and a yellow crochet high and never a scrap of make-up.

‘I’ve had to put on make-up for each job I’ve had from the age of 17, so I’ve at all times tried to not put on any when I’m off-duty. It’s like a vacation for me,’ she shrugs. 

‘When you’ve gotten youngsters otherwise you’re working — no matter retains you busy — make-up is simply one other layer of taking over time. So, to be extra time environment friendly, I do as little as doable.

‘Plus, as you become older the feel of your pores and skin modifications and I really feel make-up truly can intensify little imperfections, somewhat than hiding them.’

That angle explains why Emma was blissful to pose for a set of make-up-free footage selling Absolute Collagen, the collagen sachets based by her good friend Maxine Laceby, with its slogan Dare To Go Bare.

‘It was actually refreshing doing a skilled shoot with out make-up. It was a bit nerve-racking since you need to be certain the sunshine is true. But on my social media, any footage I put up exterior work are make-up-free, so why ought to this be any totally different?’

I doubt nearly all of us who lack Emma’s extraordinary bone construction can be fairly so courageous. 

She’s obscure after I ask about tweakments, admitting solely to BBL (‘Not a Brazilian butt raise! It’s laser remedy that looks like little elastic bands pinging towards your pores and skin’) to restore some solar harm and to having her eyebrows recurrently microbladed (‘It’s a game-changer’) to intensify her piercing blue eyes.

But no matter tips she has at her disposal, the actual fact she ever goes publicly make-up-free nonetheless makes her roughly 1,000 occasions much less useless than your common telly face.

Still, she admits, with 50 on the horizon she’s having to embrace a higher-maintenance lifestyle.

‘There was this form of carefreeness to my 30s. But in my 40s, not my life, however my physique is beginning to really feel a bit shattered.

‘These days I by no means get up and do not feel sore, not simply from figuring out however from sleeping. I am unable to discover a snug place, my neck and shoulders are all over. 

‘So, having taken all of it as a right, I’m now making an attempt to take care of myself as a result of Matt’s actually into being wholesome and needs us to be climbing mountains after we’re 80. That’s a lot of stress!’

She’s additionally been spurred on by seeing her mother and father, now of their 70s. ‘They’re nonetheless energetic and cellular and loving life however I see these little illnesses creeping in — Dad’s getting slower going up stairs, his knees and his ankles harm, and Mum has a actually dodgy again, so it is like, ‘Oh proper, these are my genetics. What can I do to keep away from that?’

Emma has common well being MoTs to monitor issues like her ldl cholesterol (‘too excessive’) and testosterone ranges (‘too low’). ‘I’m actually into intestine well being as properly. I like all that. I simply love something concerning the human physique.’

Changes she’s not too long ago made embrace consuming extra water —she’s carrying a huge three-litre refillable bottle after we chat and swigs from it incessantly. ‘God, do I pee a lot now,’ she grins.

For train, she does Pilates, weight coaching, boxing and rowing on a machine — though she usually hates something that makes her sweaty.

She’s additionally began sporting a sleep-tracking ring, which gauges her sleep high quality by way of metrics similar to her coronary heart charge and temperature. 

‘Now I understand how sugar massively impacts my sleep, and so do blue lights earlier than mattress, so I attempt to put my cellphone away straight after supper.’

Matt’s again on tour, however the band is now actually conscious and supportive… I’ve discovered [dealing with addiction] is a course of that’ll final for eve 

Watching her kids develop up has been bitter-sweet. ‘My seven-year-old has at all times been my little child, however even she will not be so little any extra. I feel, ‘What am I going to do with no tiny ones?’ I’ll actually miss it. Part of me goes ‘Oh gosh, ought to we have now had one other child?’

‘Or will I cave and get a canine? They all need one, however I’m the one who shall be made to take care of it and I’ve received sufficient on my plate.

‘My sneaky plan is to get one after they’ve all left and that shall be my approach of engaging them house once more!’

For now, perimenopausal mind fog has Emma in its grip. She incessantly loses monitor of sentences, laughingly looking for phrases.

She’s tried to be as sincere as doable with the youngsters about menopause, which she’s coming into simply as Isabelle has her personal hormonal teenage challenges.

‘Touch wooden, she’s unbelievable at the second, however she’s like, ‘So we’re each form of feeling a little bit all over?’ My son is rather like, ‘Thank God I’m not a woman’.’

And how’s Matt? ‘He’s good. He’s used to the temper swings.’

But rising older undoubtedly has its benefits, too, as Emma learns to deal with herself as a substitute of others. 

‘I’ve at all times been a people-pleaser and now I feel, typically, I most likely should not have been,’ she says. ‘But I’m getting higher at saying no with out apologising profusely.

‘Like a lot of ladies, I’ve at all times discovered the ‘prioritise your self’ factor troublesome, however that is one other factor I’ve discovered from Matt. He clearly has to prioritise his psychological well being and now I get that I would like to do these items too.’

It helps that the youngsters want her much less. ‘When they had been all little I used to be so busy with work, the one hour I might need in a day I needed to spend with them. But now they do not need to be with me, they’re of their bedrooms speaking to their mates anyway, so it is like I would as properly go to the fitness center.’

At the identical time, the sensation that she’s simply a woman from Sutton Coldfield who’s unworthy of success has lastly vanished.

‘With age you realise you truly are fairly succesful. It helps that there are such a lot of ladies of their 50s on tv who’re thriving: whether or not it is Gabby Logan or Davina [McCall], they’re cheerleaders and so they’re altering the narrative.’

She continues, ‘With the whole lot I’ve ever executed I’ve at all times felt I used to be fortunate simply to be there, however in case you took off these limitations, what may you obtain? 

‘There’s at all times this little voice in your head going, ‘Oh, it is not going to final too lengthy, do not get too snug’. But truly, it has been 20 years. Maybe it is going to be all proper!’

• Emma has partnered with Absolute Collagen to assist launch its first-ever skincare vary ‘Deep Lift’, empowering ladies to really feel Strong In Your Skin by embracing their pure magnificence.