The duo met more than 20 years ago when she interviewed his band Busted on MTV’s TRL
Love Is Blind UK’s Emma and Matt Willis briefly followed the same path before they met with the celebrities both taking on roles in EastEnders.
The second season of Love Is Blind UK has gone down a storm with more instant connections and fiery personalities keeping Netflix subscribers hooked.
At the heart of it all are real-life married presenters Emma and Matt Willis who met back in 2004 when Emma, then 29, interviewed Busted on MTV’s TRL, including 22-year-old Matt.
Four years later, the pair got married at Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire and welcomed their three children in 2009, 2011 and then their youngest five years later.
But years before meeting, both Emma and Matt experienced what life is like in BBC ’s iconic Albert Square.
Presenter Emma Willis starred as a minor character called Jodie in an episode of EastEnders in 1999. (Image: BBC)
In November 1999, The Voice presenter had a guest role in an episode of EastEnders as a youngster called Jodie. She starred alongside Jodie’s mum, played by actress Joanna Hole, although there is little information on what her involvement in the episode was.
In a still image from the episode, Emma looks a lot younger and has longer hair, in comparison to her famous short haircut.
Meanwhile, Busted star Matt made a couple of trips to Walford, the first being an unnamed teenager on a skateboard in 1998.
The second of the two was a far larger role in 2014 when Matt was already well known for being part of the noughties pop band.
Busted star Matt Willis portrayed Stacey Slater’s boyfriend Luke Riley in EastEnders in 2014.(Image: BBC)
He was behind Luke Riley, Stacey Slater’s (Lacey Turner) long-term boyfriend who she was living with in London after she killed Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb).
Stacey had been pretending that her name was Jenny Smith but when he found out the truth, she headed back to Walford to live with Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace).
Luke still loved Stacey though and was willing to make another go of things, however, upon discovering she was a killer, he left for good this time, leaving her heartbroken.
Love Is Blind UK is available to watch on Netflix.
EastEnders icon Diane Parish took to social media over the weekend to share a fun-fuelled video of highlights from the 2025 British Soap Awards – which did not give away any of the winners
Diane Parish shared behind-the-scenes content from the British Soap Awards 2025(Image: @officialdianeparish/Instagram)
Diane Parish was in a celebratory mood on Saturday night as she joined her EastEnders castmates and headed to Hackney for the British Soap Awards 2025. The 55-year-old soap icon, famous for playing Denise Fox on the BBC show since 2006, had been on the long list for one of the show categories.
The star had been initially nominated for the Best Leading Performer gong, but did not advance to the second round of nominations for the prestigious award. Instead, EastEnders co-stars Lacey Turner and Kellie Bright were nominated for the gong alongside Emmerdale stars Beth Cordingly and Eden Taylor-Draper.
Diane gave fans a glimpse behind the scenes(Image: @officialdianeparish/Instagram)
With this in mind, Diane took to social media on Sunday to share her own highlights from the night, which did not give anything away. She shared a two-and-a-half-minute-long video from the celebrations, which included footage of her partying with fellow soap stars before, during and after the event.
Uploading the footage to her main grid, Diane wrote: “NO SPOILERS for those who don’t wanna know. But I am sooooo PROUD of everyone who works on @bbceastenders What a night!”
Diane, who plays Denise looked sensational(Image: @officialdianeparish/Instagram)
Clips showed her laughing and chatting with co-stars, encouraging members of the public in the live audience to cheer, spotlighting Anita Dobson in the crowd, and partying at the after party. Soap stars were thrown into a panic at the party, however, as the after-show venue was hit by a bomb hoax.
The event was held at London’s Hackney Town Hall after the main awards. But attendees were suddenly asked to leave the venue shortly before 1am after the event had reportedly received a bomb threat.
“We all got evacuated just before 1am. No reason was given at first and security came round and told us we had to leave immediately,” a source told The Mirror – recounting the nerves shredding experience.
She was seen posing with her co-stars(Image: @officialdianeparish/Instagram)
“As we all waited in the street outside, security told us there had been a bomb threat. We weren’t allowed back in the building so people started making their way home.”
In a video shared with The Mirror, some of TV’s biggest soap stars can be seen waiting outside the venue as more evacuate – with the likes of EastEnders’ Tameka Empson and former Hollyoaks star Emmett J Scanlan among them.
A show source also told The Mirror: “Owing to a security alert after the recording of the awards, it was necessary to evacuate the after party venue. Everyone was cleared from the building safely.”
Meanwhile, fans of soaps took to social media to slam ITV for failing to broadcast the event live – with many annoyed that they would have to wait until Thursday before being able to see who would take to the stage.
Taking to X to slam the delay in broadcast, one fan raged: “It’s ridiculous that the British Soap Awards isn’t live… there’s more hype for the soap stars arriving outside for something not even airing on tv for another week than there is the Britain’s Got Talent final… sort it out for next year please @itv.”
The British Soap Awards 2025 will be broadcast via ITV1 and ITVX on Thursday 5 June 2025 at 8pm.
EastEnders and Emmerdale were the joint shows to beat at the 2025 British Soap Awards as both had an impressive 13 nominations over 12 categories each – but the BBC soap proved triumphant on the night
21:11, 31 May 2025Updated 22:57, 31 May 2025
The full winners list of the British Soap Awards 2025 has been unveiled(Image: PA)
EastEnders were the big winners at tonight’s British Soap Awards, taking away the top gong. Named Best British Soap, they beat Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks to the coveted accolade.
Walking away with eight awards in total, Steve McFadden picked up Best Dramatic Performance and Best Single Episode for Phil Mitchell’s psychosis. It comes in the soap’s 40th anniversary year.
Hollyoaks got three awards, Emmerdale got two and Coronation Street walked away with one – the Outstanding Achievement Award to David Neilson, who has played Roy Cropper for 30 years. The biggest names in soapland dazzled on the glitter carpet – with Hollyoaks actress Jorgie Porter and Corrie favourite Tina O’Brien both looking sensational in the same dress, a sparkly Oh Polly number.
EastEnders icons Gillian Taylforth and Anita Dobson were in attendance at the awards(Image: PA)
Speaking before she was presented with the scene of the year award, EastEnders legend Anita Dobson said: “It was just perfect.” And asked if she could return again, she said: “I don’t think so, although I should say never say never, it would have to be something extra special.”
Gillian Taylforth, who plays Kathy Beale, added: “It was just brilliant, although none of us knew that she was coming back! We’ll need Ange back if anything ever happened to Kathy, not that I want it too.”
Hosted by Jane McDonald, telly favourites Sir David Jason and Larry Lamb presented awards at London’s Hackney Empire.
The awards were back after being cancelled last year. Watch the British Soap Awards 2025 on Thursday 5 June via ITV1 and ITVX at 8pm.
The British Soap Awards 2025 winners list in full;
BEST BRITISH SOAP
EastEnders
BEST LEADING PERFORMER
EastEnders: Lacey Turner (Stacey Slater)
VILLAIN OF THE YEAR
EastEnders: Navin Chowdhry (Nish Panesar)
BEST COMEDY PERFORMANCE
Coronation Street: Jack P. Shepherd (David Platt)
BEST FAMILY
Hollyoaks: The Osbornes
BEST DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE
EastEnders: Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell)
BEST SINGLE EPISODE
EastEnders: Phil’s Psychosis: The Mitchells In 1985
