Who is Emma Willis? Her age, career highlights, family life and more

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Emma Willis seems to be the name on everybody's lips lately, especially with rumours of her being the new Strictly presenter! But who is she really? Whether you know her from her Big Brother days, her excellent turn hosting The Voice or even from her days at I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! Now! (or as we know it now, I'm a Celebrity: Unpacked), she's a phenomenal TV personality that we can't help but love. We've got all the information you could ever want, so prepare to deep dive and enjoy as we tell you all about Emma Willis.

Who is Emma Willis?

Emma Willis was born on 18th March 1976, in a town called Sutton Coalfield in Birmingham. Nowadays, we know her for her stellar hosting abilities, but growing up, she actually worked as a model for brands like GAP and Chanel!

It wasn't all glamour in her childhood, though. On the topic of growing up, she said, “I went to school in Sutton, all my friends were in Sutton – Birmingham was kind of this big scary place that my older sister went to – and got into trouble when she came home – it was just not as shiny then, was it?"

Emma's never been shy about her Brummie roots, and after presenting on and off for MTV from 2002, she brought her talent and charm to the masses with her work on the spin-off shows Big Brother's Big Mouth and I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! Now!.

Is Emma Willis married?

If you're a fan of Love is Blind: UK, you'll know that Emma is married to Busted member and I'm a Celeb winner Matt Willis, with whom she hosts the show! They actually met when his band appeared on MTV with Emma hosting, and after dating for three years, the pair got married in July of 2008.

According to a BBC article, Matt and Emma described getting to work together on the show as "wicked", with Emma noting the similarities to her past work, saying: "It was like Big Brother all over again. Like back when I first worked on it, it was just a gallery of screens with all of these people dating, it was like a dream!"

Matt and Emma shared a deeper insight into their relationship as part of the documentary Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, which chronicles her husband's struggle with alcohol and drug dependencies. The programme was praised for its honesty and celebrated Matt's ongoing sobriety.

Does Emma Willis have children?

Emma and Matt share three children together: one boy, Ace, and two girls, Isabelle and Trixie. While she does post about her little ones on social media on occasion, Emma makes an effort to keep their faces censored for their privacy. She encourages her children to think carefully before joining any social media sites themselves.

"I'm going to keep them off it for as long as possible," revealed the TV presenter when speaking with HELLO in 2019. "Eventually there will come a day when they're going to want to do it, but I think education is key, and you have to let them know the positives and negatives of it. As long as they're educated and aware of the dangers, then you're doing your job."

Who are Emma Willis' parents?

Emma's parents aren't nearly as prolific onscreen as their daughter - her mother Cathy worked in a hospital when she was young, and Emma almost followed in her footsteps. Both Cathy and Emma's father, Steve Griffiths, appeared along with Emma in a 2017 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, in which she discovered her roots in Birmingham and even some distant Irish ancestry.

What TV shows has Emma appeared in?

It might be easier to list the shows Emma hasn't presented! Over the years, she has hosted a wide range of TV programmes, including six series as a host for Big Brother and a whopping ten series as host of The Voice! She even co-presented the BRIT Awards in 2017 with Dermot O'Leary.

In a fun twist, recently, Emma and her husband Matt have appeared as fake hosts of the show Couple Goals within the real show Celebrity Sabotage, where a team of celebs play pranks on contestants who think they're filming the next hit reality TV programme. Talk about production value!

Here's a more complete list of some of Emma's best roles:

Emily Dale is a member of Bauer’s Content Optimisation Team, and writer. Over the years she has contributed to a number of brands including Mother&Baby, Yours and WhatsTheBest.

Her strongest interests lie in board games, feel-good comedy and TV quiz shows like taskmaster. One of her favourite hobbies is completing crosswords and other word puzzles, or even making her own to share with friends. Eventually, she hopes to have an entire series of her custom Only Connect episodes in the backlog to unleash on visitors!