THE BIG BREAK-UP
Denise: Johnny was like my brother but then he went behind my back for money
FORMER Big Breakfast star Denise van Outen has told how she quit the show after finding out her co-host Johnny Vaughan had gone behind her back to get himself more money.
Denise and Johnny were TV’s golden couple on the Channel 4 show in the 1990s.
But she says their friendship was “tarnished” when Johnny decided to go it alone on a renegotiated contract.
Denise told ITV’s Loose Women: “I had a big fallout with Johnny Vaughan.
“We were literally like brother and sister. We were best friends – unbreakable.
“The whole relationship fell apart when we started to renegotiate our contracts because I always felt we worked together as a team and that’s how it should be.
“We created it together and not just us, the rest of the team working on the show. I always had that mentality that it’s about all of us.
“I know there were other influences involved and agents and everything but he was negotiating separately from me.
“I found out and confronted him. I realised at that point our friendship had gone in two different directions.
“For me it was tarnished and that’s why I left the show. I knew it would never be the same in that working environment.”
Denise later returned to the show to resume her partnership with Johnny, but she said: “A similar thing happened again.
“It’s hard, because I loved him so much and I still do.
“I could still be angry about it now.
“But I’ve seen him since and whenever I see him I just forget about it because I love him so much and he makes me laugh so much, more than anyone I’ve ever met.
“We were really, really good friends. I just don’t know if it would ever be the same again.”