I’m finally feeling sexy again at 45, says Denise Van Outen
SHE played a sultry femme fatale in the West End musical Chicago almost two decades ago.
And Denise Van Outen says she is now feeling ‘sexy’ again in her 40s as she prepares for her return to the stage after losing ‘a little bit of me’ when she became a mother.
The actress, 45, is back in fishnet tights and tassels as the host of a new Vegasstyle show, Cabaret All Stars, at Proud nightclub at Embankment in London.
‘It’s a bit like Strictly Come Dancing – you get your mojo back because you’re in
‘I’ve not reached my peak’
those great outfits and it’s showtime,’ she told the Daily Mail.
Miss Van Outen took a break from performing to be a ‘hands-on mum’ to nine-year-old Betsy, her daughter with her ex-partner, actor Lee Mead.
She previously played Roxie Hart in Chicago on the West End stage in 2001 and later on Broadway, as well as starring as Paulette Bonafonte in the musical version of Legally Blonde.
She said she has loved every second of being a mother ‘but you lose a bit of yourself because you lose your confidence.
‘You just get to an age where you think,
“Oh that’s it, I’m done and I’ve reached the peak of what I’m meant to be doing”. But actually, no. Why should we as mums and women feel like that? It’s not a man’s world. I was the outspoken woman of the 90s – why should I shut up now?’
She continued: ‘I’ve always been there to do school runs and you do make sacrifices. Then you think, “I just miss a little bit of me”. Sometimes you don’t feel sexy because I do the school run in tracksuits, but I feel sexy now and I think I’ve not reached my peak.’
Miss Van Outen said shaking up her lifestyle – she is now almost teetotal and trains four days a week – has helped her to feel confident and she wants to go into her 50s ‘feeling fit’.
She added: ‘[Exercise] gave me my mojo back in life. Look at J-Lo. If you do it now you can maintain it.’