I could write a book about heartbreak...
ACTRESS and TV presenter Denise Van Outen has never been one for sitting still for long.
There’s no pigeon-holing the onetime 90s ‘ladette’ party girl who made her name opposite Johnny Vaughan on The Big Breakfast and went on to play Roxie Hart in Chicago in both the West End and on Broadway, became a TV casting judge in talent show Any Dream Will Do and cosied up to (now ex) Eddie Boxshall in Celebrity Gogglebox.
Now she’s written her memoir, A Bit Of Me: From Basildon To Broadway And Back, which she completed during lockdown as she couldn’t bear sitting around doing nothing.
The book’s release was delayed from last year while the 47-year-old actress, singer, dancer and presenter wrote an extra chapter on the reasons for her recent split from trader Eddie after seven-and-a-half years. But she is now determined to move forward.
“I’ve had a couple of very public break-ups and for each one I’ve had, I’ve tried to turn a negative into a positive,” the former Strictly runner-up explains.
“My last really public break-up was with Lee Mead, my daughter’s father. I took myself off and learned how to play golf. I immersed myself in it. It was escapism for me.
“In recent weeks, I’ve been learning how to work the discs so I can do some festival summer gigs this year.
“I try to learn a new skill just to have a focus and I think that also helps you to get through. I could write a book about heartbreak.”
A Bit Of Me details previous relationships including her romance with Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay and her six-year marriage to Casualty and Holby City star Lee.
Does she think she’s been unlucky in love?
“No! I never try and look back and think I’ve been unlucky. Every relationship that I’ve had has brought something into my life and I’ve learned something through it,” she says.
“I still have the most amazing relationship with Lee. He’s a brilliant father to my daughter, Betsy (now 11). We are really good friends, we’ve got each other’s backs.
“I totally respect his new relation