She has long cultivated her image as the cool, elfin girl-next-door, spending the past two decades honing her craft to become one of television’s best-loved presenters.
So wholesome is Emma Willis that she even trained as a midwifery assistant in 2019 for Channel 4’s Delivering Babies, which saw her lend a hand on a maternity ward.
Her warmth and practicality have been evident behind the cameras, too. For years she has been a ‘rock’ for her husband, former Busted singer Matt Willis, who overcame a very public battle with addiction. In short, those who know her describe her as ‘Little Miss Perfect’.
So with the reputation of Strictly Come Dancing, the BBC’s flagship Saturday night show, under threat following a string of bullying and drug-use scandals, it’s hardly a surprise that bosses turned to Emma as a safe pair of hands.
After months of speculation over who would fill the shoes of outgoing hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, last Tuesday Emma was confirmed as one of three new presenters who will take the helm this autumn.
She will be joined by comic and former journalist Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, Strictly’s much-loved professional dancer, in a shake-up that producers hope will refocus attention on the celebrity line-ups, the sequins and glitterballs, and, importantly, the dancing itself.
Sources tell Katie Hind one of Emma Willis’s ‘big plus points’ was her squeaky-clean image and her knack for avoiding any drama
Emma was confirmed as one of three new presenters who will take the helm on Strictly Come Dancing this autumn, along with Johannes Radebe – Strictly’s much-loved professional dancer
Sources tell me one of Emma’s ‘big plus points’ was precisely her squeaky-clean image and her knack for avoiding any drama.
But Emma, who turned 50 in March, may not always have been as wholesome as she looks. In fact, as I can reveal, she has something of a wild past.
Before she married Matt, and while she was a single girl-about-town working her way up in the television industry, she had quite the reputation as a party girl who enjoyed some very late nights.
Back in the mid-2000s, as an achingly-cool presenter on MTV, Emma was mingling with some of the world’s biggest music stars – many of whom, I’m told, were rather taken with her.
One of them was Robbie Williams, then at the height of his fame and yet to embrace sobriety. The pair met at the 2005 MTV awards ceremony in Lisbon when they were both drinking at the city’s Four Seasons hotel. I know because I was there – and I watched as they flirted outrageously. The following day I was told that they had enjoyed a romantic rendezvous.
And there is another ghost in Emma’s past – one which may set tongues wagging again now she has bagged the high-profile role on Strictly.
Again, it took place when she was single. But this passionate encounter would certainly raise eyebrows among the millions of Strictly fans if it were to become public knowledge.
Those who knew Emma then have confided that she enjoyed a ‘moment’ with a well-known man working in the music industry.
The unlikely tryst is said to have left those in both of their circles ‘absolutely stunned’. ‘It was a huge surprise that Emma got with this man,’ says my source. ‘You wouldn’t have put them together in a million years, he is so not her type.
‘Emma was pretty mortified when word got out. It was never published in the Press, but people tend to come forward when a celebrity is elevated into a prime-time job.
‘Of course, Emma has done nothing wrong, but it would be all very cringe for her.’ Indeed, when I told Strictly bosses about Emma’s behaviour in her younger days, they had no idea.
One source joked: ‘Gosh, who’d have thought it,’ while a BBC insider also voiced their surprise. ‘The upper echelons of the Beeb fear that any stories about the private lives of any of their three new hosts would, of course, prompt a narrative that they don’t want,’ the insider says. ‘They want viewers to be talking about the dancing rather than the sex lives of their new presenters.
Friends say the Strictly gig, on which she and Johannes are also being joined by comedian Josh Widdicombe, was ‘something she couldn’t turn down in a million years’
Before she married Matt Willis, with whom she now has three children, Emma had quite the reputation as a party girl
‘One of the big things going for Emma during the selection process for Strictly was her wholesome image. Finding someone with no wild behaviour in their past was a really big part of the recruitment process.
‘This is a new dawn for the show, it’s looking forwards, not backwards – it’s about the dancing.’
Any diversion from Strictly’s family-friendly vibe is the last thing the BBC needs.
In 2023, bosses were furious after actress Amanda Abbington claimed that her professional partner Giovanni Pernice had bullied her during rehearsals. An investigation cleared him of the most serious claims.
Another professional dancer, Graziano Di Prima, was then sacked for kicking his partner, reality star Zara McDermott.
Then, opera singer Wynne Evans was caught making a vile sex jibe about his co-star, dancer Janette Manrara, at the launch of the Strictly live tour in February last year. He later made sordid allegations about a Strictly colleague taking cocaine, although an investigation by the BBC found no evidence of it happening.
Emma’s big break came in 2014 when she replaced Holly Willoughby as the host of ITV’s singing competition The Voice – a role she still holds today.
This, too, is the subject of controversy inside the BBC, because there is likely to be a brief period of crossover when Emma is hosting the singing show and Strictly at the same time because The Voice is pre-recorded.
Emma, who has three children with Matt, turned down a lucrative offer to host This Morning following Ms Willoughby’s exit, because she wanted to be able to take her brood to school each morning.
But, friends say, Strictly was ‘something she couldn’t turn down in a million years’.
The hiring of Widdicombe, 43, however, has been the subject of much backlash, with Strictly fans shocked that he was handed the role over TV personality – and viewer favourite – Rylan Clark.
Widdicombe, who is most famous for appearing on Channel 4 comedy show The Last Leg and his podcast Parenting Hell, with comic Rob Beckett, lacks live television experience, although he won over some Strictly fans after taking part in the 2024 Christmas special dressed as a penguin.
But he is as wholesome as they come, and has a nine-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son with his television producer wife, Rose Hanson.
‘It all seems a little underwhelming,’ says a source connected with the show. ‘But the bosses at Strictly must see something [in Emma] we are yet to witness. They’re just playing it a bit safe.’
Certainly, both Emma and the BBC will be hoping it stays that way.
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