Matt Willis

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.

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.

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.

Love Is Blind UK has returned with 30 new singletons entering the pods in the hope of finding true love.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Love Is Blind UK season two.

Love Is Blind UK fans have watched five couples get engaged but not everyone is happy with one match in particular.

A year has gone by since the first series of UK’s Love Is Blind debuted on Netflix with real-life married couple Emma and Matt Willis hosting the dating show.

Singles from across the UK and Ireland gathered to the Love Is Blind pods where they got to know potential partners without ever seeing them, in a bid to find that deep emotional connection.

By the end of the fourth episode, five couples got engaged and were able to see each other for the first time but it wasn’t smooth sailing by any means.

Katisha, 31, found herself in a love triangle with 30-year-old financial analyst Demola and 28-year-old health coach Javen while in the pods.

She initially decided to go with Demola but in an unexpected U-turn, Katisha changed her mind after another date with Javen.

Katisha ended her time with Demola, going on to only pursue her romance with Javen which resulted in the pair becoming the last couple to get engaged.

However, throughout the dating process, Javen, a former professional footballer, had shown some worrying “red flags” according to fans.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, someone wrote: “The moment Javen said it’s a game he is playing, we all saw that red flag. Katisha girl,” followed by an eye roll emoji.

A fellow fan commented: “Javen saying grand gestures is not his thing confirmed to me that he is a red flag.”

While a third agreed: “Choosing Javen is crazy I’m sorry because what do you mean you want her to propose? Red flag,” and another stated: “Javen is a huge red flag. HUGE.”

Despite fans’ concerns with Javen’s behaviour, he and Katisha did get engaged, although they soon faced criticism from within the group.

Fellow groom Kal called out Katisha for how she treated Demola but she simply said she had a change of heart and it was nothing to do with what he personally did.

A teaser for next week’s batch of episodes sees Kal bringing up this issue with Javen as he questions if she could change her mind again.

Katisha is also going to meet up with Demola in real-life so there may be a chance a romantic connection could still blossom with them.

Love Is Blind UK season two is available to watch on Netflix.