TV star Emma Willis on imposter syndrome, returning to modelling in her 40s, and why you'll never see her kids on social media
What makes an everywoman? On first impressions, Emma Willis is surely too good-looking for the job – elfin bone structure, piercing blue eyes, defined jawline. It’s no surprise that she started her career as a model, moving from Birmingham to an agency flat in London aged 17. But within a few minutes of meeting her, the likeability that makes Emma TV gold shines through and she feels like an old friend. Her first presenting role was on MTV. ‘I thought, “I’ll enjoy it while it lasts – and I’m sure it’s not going to last very long,”’ she admits. But she’s since graduated to the big time, fronting The Voice on first the BBC then ITV, Big Brother’s Little Brother on Channel 4 and Big Brother on Channel 5. And she’s guest-presented This Morning, Loose Women and even The Paul O’Grady Show.
The beautiful-but-relatable package of a TV host is a highly marketable one. As shoppers lose faith in the social-media stars selling a FaceTuned and filtered ideal of perfection, TV presenters have become the new influencers. Davina has long sold hair dye, and Claudia shampoo, but this is even more than that: here is a seemingly irresistible mixture of celebrity and familiarity.
Subliminally selling clothes on air is a relatively new phenomenon, one made possible by the explosion of Instagram, where TV presenters – and their stylists – can tag the brands worn in outfit posts shared in real time. Holly Willoughby’s This Morning outfits sell out within hours; her foray into the jungle made hiking boots the new Veja trainers. Kurt Geiger has recorded a 300 per cent uplift in sales after Emma has worn the brand, with customers searching specifically for what she’s wearing.
Emma and Holly are as recognisable to the public as a Hollywood star, but seem far less removed from our own realities – they do the school run, batch-cook family dinners, buy their clothes on the British high street: the marketing message being that they are ‘just like us’. It’s a message fashion brands have been quick to monetise: Emma is an ambassador for Next, Holly for Marks & Spencer. Instagram influencer status (at the time of writing, Emma has 1.4 million followers) increasingly goes hand in hand with life in the public eye, especially with celebrity marriages: in 2008, Emma married Busted’s Matt Willis, with exclusive rights to the wedding pictures sold to OK! magazine.
The pair have three children together: Isabelle, Ace and Trixie. This is no ‘Brand Beckham’, though: the kids, and Emma’s off-duty life, remain out of the spotlight. ‘They’re two, seven and nine, so far too young in my opinion,’ she says. ‘We don’t know what long-term effects social media is going to have on the generation that has grown up with it being their norm. ‘We’ve definitely made a conscious decision to keep them as much out of things as possible, and to keep them off social media – to the point where we were at a party on New Year’s Eve and one of his cousins said to my son, “Can we take a picture together?” and Ace went, “Yes, but you can’t put it on Instagram.” He doesn’t even know what Instagram is! He’s obviously heard me say that.’
At nearly 43, Emma has returned to modelling as the face of her collaboration with high-street giant Next. She was already a shopper there, but admits, ‘I hadn’t really paid much attention to the adult stuff because I would just walk straight through it to the kids’ department.’ At first, she worked with the brand to curate ‘edits’, choosing her favourite pieces from its existing lines. When Emma mentioned in passing that she’d thought about designing pyjamas, her own collection was a natural next step.
‘It started with pyjamas, and then it became this small capsule – I live in suits and tailoring so that made sense, and I’m a sucker for a bikini.’ The Emma Willis collection is online now and in stores from Tuesday, with second and third drops already in the works. Dressed in an overcoat, black trousers, a jumper and trainers for our meeting, Emma’s style is true to the classic staples she’s designed for Next – she’s keen not to produce trend-led, fast-fashion pieces that will get chucked away at the end of a season, instead focusing on longevity and agelessness.
It’s a collection that should appeal to women of any age, she hopes; her own style is equally difficult to bracket. When Emma turned 40, she added a few new piercings to her earlobes. ‘I’ll get a tattoo at 50,’ she half-jokes. ‘I was meant to get one, actually – Matt and I were going together, and for our wedding anniversary we were going to get “’til death” in here,’ she says, pointing to the uninked side of her wedding finger. ‘He got it done and I was like, “No, I think I’m going to wait.” So he has it; I chickened out.’
When we meet, Emma’s signature dark crop is newly bleached peroxide blonde. Her inspiration? ‘Michelle Williams in the Louis Vuitton campaign – she’s everything. I’ve been progressing, slowly getting lighter and lighter, and then Louis my hairdresser just went, “For f—’s sake, Emma, three years this has taken – can you please just let me do it?”’
We talk over lunch at Dean Street Townhouse in London’s Soho. No two days are the same for Emma, though either she or Matt will do the morning school run most days. The power dynamic is the same when they work together as when they’re at home, she tells me as she tucks into her chicken salad, sounding every inch the busy mum. ‘It’s very equal. He has strengths and he has weaknesses, and I have many strengths and a few weaknesses. I like to think I’m always right, but I’m unfortunately not; he says I’m bossy and I probably am. But you’ve got to be sometimes, otherwise s—t doesn’t get done.’
If her recent influencer status has fallen into her lap, her TV career has been hard won indeed. ‘There are obviously many more men doing what I do. You see that when you see the long list for the NTAs [National Television Awards]: it’s like a thousand men and two women. ‘I think in the beginning it did feel like a bit of a boys’ club, and I did feel a bit out of place. But back then I knew nothing about media, I knew nothing about television. I thought I was an imposter.’
Her latest TV gig, Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, sees her training as a maternity care assistant on a hospital ward in Essex. For Emma, whose parents both worked in a hospital before retiring, it’s a glimpse of what could have been. ‘That’s what I would be doing, so I’m kind of living the life I never had. ‘Just before I fell pregnant [with Isabelle] I’d thought maybe I need do something else. Then I was pregnant and couldn’t get a job to save my life – Isabelle was one when I got Big Brother’s Little Brother. When Ace was born, I returned to work after six weeks, back to Big Brother, then I did five weeks with Trixie.’
She credits Big Brother as a turning point in her career – both in terms of feeling confident in her ability, and as the point when she started to get offered more work, though she’s never entirely kicked the imposter syndrome. So what’s Emma Willis’s unique selling point? ‘I think I’m quite easy to talk to. Am I?’ I nod. ‘Great. That’s my USP: I love a chat.’
The full Emma Willis collection is available at next.co.uk, prices start at ￡12
