Class lad living the dream...
and never forgets his roots. A year ago, he teamed up with the GMB union to give-away £25,000 worth of free concert tickets to keyworkers – “Britain’s unsung heroes”.
ALL OF HIS family worked through lockdown. “As well as my parents, my brother Casey is a customs officer and my sister-in-law Charlotte is a nurse – they all kept doing their jobs without complaint and I wanted to give something back,” he says.
This big-hearted and utterly guileless star is devoted to his daughter Betsy, 11, from his marriage to Denise Van Outen – they wed in 2009 and split four years later, but have stayed close friends for Betsy’s sake.
He has a place in Southend, to be near her, but lives most of the time in Bexley, Kent, with girlfriend Issy Szumniak and her son Alfie, 8.
The couple have been together since 2018. Romance blossomed in a coffee shop after he picked Betsy up from school. “We got on really well,” he has said. “But it was a while before I plucked up the courage to ask her on a date.”
Issy appears in the video for Lee’s 2020 single, In My Arms For Christmas. They gel well together, although Lee admits: “I can be quite impatient and annoying because I like to be organised. She’s more laid back. But I adore Betsy and Alfie and love our time together. They get on like brother and sister.”
He goes on: “I’m a simple guy. I love the cinema – I’d go every day of the week if I were free. I enjoy a few pints with my friends, and I love a Sunday roast. It’s my mission every Sunday to get a roast in a pub. I’m in panto in Bromley, so I found a pub that does roasts and sat outside in the cold eating it and loving every bite.”
Lee was addicted to football growing up, and supports Chelsea passionately. “When I was in panto in Fulham, I used to go every day and spend five minutes just looking at the stadium,” he says.
“I was nine when I saw my first game. Kerry Dixon, my hero, got a hattrick.”
Luton-born Dixon scored 193 goals for the Blues, but the closest Lee got to following in the striker’s footsteps was being a ball-boy for Southend Utd in the Stan Collymore years.
“I was a terrible footballer,” he admits. “I played for Rayleigh Boys but I was always on the bench. Useless. It was just as well I could sing.”
If he hadn’t made it as a singer, though, Lee thinks he’d have become a teacher.
“I’d still consider that if things didn’t work out. I love kids – children are what it’s all about. I’d teach English. I’m hooked on literature and drama.
“I had an impassioned drama teacher, Richard Foster, who gave me confidence and encouraged self-expression.”
Lee didn’t sing in public until he was 16 “and then I got the bug for it – I was never a stagey kid, but I listened to everything.
“My grandad loved classical music. I’d go to visit him and he’d be in the living room with a pair of headphones on conducting along to Pavarotti.
“When I was six, he sat me on his knee and put the headphones on me. It was incredible. The first single I bought was Meatloaf ’s I’d Do Anything For Love – it was massive, such passion and melody.
“I was a £10-a-week paperboy and it cost £3.99, almost half a week’s wages.”
In 2014 Lee started pursuing a separate musical career. He has released four solo albums and toured the UK and Japan with his band.
“Before Covid, we would go out every 18 months or two years and do 30-odd date tours, but the last tour was pulled twice. We ended up just doing 12 dates.”
In 2019, he performed at the Royal Albert Hall’s Festival of Remembrance with a full orchestra; this year he headlined the Palladium “and had a moment thinking about grandad, he was such a lovely man.” The concert was released on CD and DVD in November.
After Fat Friends, Lee knows exactly what he’ll do. “I can’t wait to go out and do a few live shows,” he says.
“They’re a cracking band and we’ve got a great MD. We do an 18-song set, some of which I’ve written.
“I take it seriously, of course I do, but I keep it in perspective. We’re entertaining people, we’re not saving lives.”
Lee Mead stars in the Uk/ireland tour of Fat Friends The Musical, January 24 – July 23, 2022 ( fatfriendsmusical.com)