'I had a lot of guilt': Busted star Matt Willis says he distanced himself from Amy Winehouse to get sober

Matt Willis, 43, said Amy Winehouse's death from alcohol poisoning in 2011 'hit me like a ton of bricks'. He was clean when she died, aged 27, and had not seen her for a while. 'I had something to pass on to you,' he said, 'and I didn't get the chance.' He told Sunday People he would walk out of shops playing her music because it made him cry.

Willis and Winehouse shared a London childhood and both trained at Sylvia Young drama school.

Willis has said he always wonders whether she would have listened 'if I'd really tried'.

He married Strictly host Emma Willis just three days after leaving rehab.