Emma Willis had 'major withdrawal and anxiety' after giving up smartphone for 21 days

Emma Willis had "major withdrawal and anxiety" after giving up smartphone for 21 days when she took part in Channel 4 experiment.

The 'Love Is Blind UK’ host, 48, took part in an experiment for the upcoming Channel 4 programme 'Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones', which saw her trade in her smartphone in return for a brick phone, which did not have access to apps or the internet, alongside her husband, Busted star Matt Willis, 41, and a group of year 8 students at The Stanway School in Colchester, Essex.

Speaking on 'Good Morning Britain' this week, Emma said: “I was very naive going into it, we handed our phones in, and we obviously needed some form of communication so we had a brick phone for three weeks.

“The first four days, genuinely, I had such major withdrawal and anxiety because I felt so out of control, because everything is on your phone.”

She added: “After I got over that period, it was liberating, and when we did finally get our phones back, I stayed off it.

“I kept my brick phone for another couple of days because I didn’t want to go back to how I had a relationship with it before.”

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Earlier this year, Emma shared that her and Matt had therapy to save their marriage.

The couple wed in 2008 but the pair sought professional help after realising there were a couple of "sticking points" they couldn't see eye-to-eye on, and Emma reluctantly agreed to Matt's therapy suggestion.

Speaking on the 'NewlyWeds' podcast, she said: "That was a big switch for us, actually, and we didn’t go because we were in trouble, we didn’t go because we were like, this is a sinking ship.

"We were like, there’s a couple of sticking points here that we can’t understand each other’s viewpoints on. So let’s get a third party to try and figure out why we can’t see where each other’s coming on.

"Matt was the one that suggested, actually, I’d never had therapy. I was like, 'I’m all right, nothing wrong with me.' Another example of when Matt was right."