TV Denise: I am having therapy... but I’m in a good place
Denise van Outen has revealed she has tried therapy for the first time after her most recent break-up. The TV and musicals star has even downloaded a dating app but is too scared to look at it yet.
Denise, 48, ditched Eddie Boxshall in January after she found he had been sending sexy texts to women behind her back.
She had been with the commodities trader for seven years and appeared with him on Celebrity Gogglebox.
Opening up about her reasons for therapy, Denise admitted she is “trying to work through” trusting partners again.
She added: “This is what I was really concerned about.
“I’ve always gone into any relationship with a massively open heart because I just always think that people are going to be honest and loyal because that’s how I approach everything and you start to realise that we’re not all the same.
“I think it will be a little bit of an issue but it’s just something that I’m going to have to work through.
“But I am open to it. I’m kind of trying to accept that it was just a little blip in my life and I’ve got to accept it for what it was and learn from it and grow from it.
“You learn about yourself more and try and take the positives out of it rather than the negatives.”
And while getting help for herself is something Denise is open to, she said her real priority is 12-year-old daughter Betsy. She told the Happy Place Podcast: “For me to just make sure Betsy’s all right really, that’s the main thing.
“I’m worried about her being OK, and how it will affect her going forward.
“As sensitive as I am, I’m a tough old cookie.
“I’m not prepared to compromise my morals and beliefs just to be in something. I always think that good will come in the end. If anybody would have asked me a few months ago would you do therapy I’d go, ‘I don’t need it’ because I always think I’m quite good at solving things myself.
“But I think, ‘Well yeah, I’ve got to be open to it because I want to learn more about me’.”
She continued: “I’m such a passionate performer. When I sing, it comes from a deep place. The lyrics of the songs that I was singing, I was just standing there sometimes thinking I just wanted to cry.
“In a way again it was a distraction, so it was not a bad thing to do.
“But I think it delayed all the emotions until around Christmas time when I was just on my own that it all really hit and I just fell to pieces a bit.” Denise has now started to think about finding another boyfriend but is doing so with caution.
She added: “I did download a dating app the other day but I haven’t gone on it. I’m too scared. “I downloaded it and then I felt really awkward and I thought I don’t know if I can do this. “I know it is the modern way but my morals, my values, the way I approach relationships, it’s so old-fashioned. That’s also one of the issues that I’ve probably got.” And as for Eddie, Denise says she has been shocked by some of the public’s reaction.
She said: “I went to the Post Office and the woman behind [the counter], she’s a lovely lady, but she was like, ‘How is everything?’ and she went, ‘I think you should get back with him’.
“I thought, you don’t even know what’s happened because nobody knew at that point. “I literally wanted to scream and go, ‘No’.” Eddie admitted in May to swapping up to 20 sex texts behind her back. He said: “I hurt Denise, I broke her trust and I’m deeply sorry.”
I did download a dating app but I don’t know if I can do it DENISE VAN OUTEN ON FINDING NEW LOVE