EXCLUSIVE: Denise Van Outen speaks to the Mirror about what the future holds as daughter Betsy turns 16 years old
“I am a true Essex girl at heart,” Denise Van Outen proudly says – and who could dispute that? After all, she’s literally the voice of The Only Way Is Essex.
Yet, the 52-year-old presenter believes it may be finally time to move on from her Essex home in the not too distant future. With daughter Betsy having turned 16 earlier this year, Denise has been left wondering what it would be like live in her huge stylish home by herself.
“I’ve always moved along with what’s going on in my life,” she tells the Mirror. In 2018, Denise sold her 17th-century farmhouse in Biddenden, Kent – which she bought with ex-husband Lee Mead – for £1.4million and moved back to Essex with her then-fiancé Eddie Boxshall. Denise has since split from Eddie after discovering explicit messages between him and other women on his iPad.
“I really love being back in Essex,” she says. “I started seeing my parents were getting older and I realised I wasn’t seeing them as much, and being a mum… I was I was being drawn back to to my motherland of Essex, back to where my parents and my family are.
“I really love it because I get to see them a lot now, and my daughter’s got a really good relationship with them. But we’re quite rural where we are in Essex, so Betsy’s probably going to want to be somewhere amongst the hustle and bustle and maybe do a flat share or something when she eventually finds herself a little job and wants to be with her friends.”
Denise shares 16-year-old daughter Betsy with ex Lee Mead, who she met while she judged BBC competition show Any Dream Will Do in 2007. He won the show and was awarded the lead role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in London’s West End. The couple married in 2009 but separated in 2013 after their relationship buckled under the pressure of work commitments and long distance.
While they now co-parent Betsy successfully, Denise has shouldered much of the parenting alone and admits it has been challenging. But with Betsy becoming more independent as she gets ready to fly the nest, Denise has been left thinking about her own future alone.
“I wouldn’t want to be here on my own,” she says. “I’m up for moving, but I just don’t know where. It’s one of those things. But I wouldn’t say where I am is my forever home. You keep going through these different chapters in your life and I think I’m onto the next chapter. So we’ll see.”
Denise adds: “I do love it here because I go to Mersey Island quite a lot, and it’s lovely there. And I feel like I’m not far from the coast and it’s good for getting into London. I love a little bit of shopping in Chelmsford and Lakeside.
“I am a true Essex girl at heart but I just think where I am at the moment, I’d feel a bit lonely. I think, eventually, I’ll probably look to move somewhere a little bit more lively.”
After spending the last 16 years turning down job opportunities to raise her daughter, Denise says that hitting midlife has made her feel “invisible”. But she doesn’t feel that’s necessarily a bad thing.
“There’s also something lovely about being 52, you just kind of care less what people think,” she says. “Feeling invisible gives you the freedom to just try different things and not care. I used to overthink everything when I was younger, especially when I was in the entertainment industry and in the public eye. Now I’m not that bothered.
“If I’m enjoying it, then I’m enjoying it, and I don’t really care so much what people think. You kind of wish your younger was a little bit more fearless.”
V personality, Denise Van Outen, teams up with Gas Safe Register ahead of Gas Safety Week (14-20 September), to urge consumers to check an engineer’s credentials rather than relying on appearances or word-of-mouth recommendations. To check whether your engineer is Gas Safe registered – you can use the ‘find and check’ tool on the website to check your engineer is registered. www.GasSafeRegister.co.uk
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