PARTYING with Noel Gallagher, arguing with Kate Moss, flashing Prince Charles and catching the eye of Matthew Perry – Denise Van Outen certainly made the most of the Nineties.
But the bubbly blonde star — who became a household name as the presenter of Channel 4’s Big Breakfast — admits her life back then was so hedonistic much of it is “a bit of a blur”.
Now Denise, 47, has shared some of her wild antics in her auto- biography, A Bit Of Me: From Basildon To Broadway And Back.
Yesterday we exclusively revealed how she writes about being the victim of a horrifying covert sex tape when she was just 15, and her split from fiancé Eddie Boxshall, 46, who was meeting and messaging other women behind her back.
But the book also chronicles her years as a ladette It Girl — which Denise describes as “a long, glorious party”.
And she writes of her high-profile romance with rocker Jay Kay of Nineties chart-toppers Jamiroquai, which started with “Concorde, private jets, arriving in a helicopter at Glastonbury” and ended with him writing break-up song Little L about her — while they were still together.
Of her time on the celeb party scene, Denise writes: “I have such good memories of those days. Things felt a lot more open and freer in many ways. It’s undoubtedly true that, good or bad, people got away with a lot more as far as partying went.”
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In Denise’s world, “church” was notorious celeb hangout The Met Bar, at the Metropolitan Hotel in Mayfair, where she spent every weekend having “legendary” parties alongside famous singers, actors and sports stars. Denise was so eager to keep partying that she would often book a room in the hotel so she could stay up late with mates instead of going home.
One night, she was joined by an unexpected guest — the supermodel Sophie Dahl, who banged on the hotel room door, claiming she had nowhere to stay. Denise recalls: “We ended up topping and tailing, and I remember her feet hanging over the end of the bed because she was so tall.”
On other nights, the TV beauty would carry on the party at Supernova Heights — the Primrose Hill home of Noel Gallagher and wife Meg Matthews, and a frequent haunt of Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Johnny Depp and Ronnie Wood.
“Although I was no stranger to a party,” Denise writes, “this seemed to be on another level.”
Admitting she was “a bit out of my depth,” she alludes to the “non-stop orgy of booze and drugs” which was said to characterise life around that crowd.
One of Denise’s best celeb pals was fellow ladette Jayne Middlemiss, with whom she was invited to Buckingham Palace in 1998 as part of a group of “young achievers” in media and entertainment.
Her Big Breakfast co-host Johnny Vaughan didn’t believe her, so she decided to pinch some “souvenirs” from the Palace to prove she had been there. But when she revealed live on TV that she’d nicked a toilet roll cover and an ashtray from the Queen, Denise sparked a scandal — and had to apologise.
The incident would come back to haunt her a year later, when Prince Charles was meeting performers at Party In The Park, which Denise was hosting.
She hoped to shake his hand, but after the ashtray incident royal security considered her “too unpredictable”. Frogmarched from the marquee, Denise was seething — but wasn’t going to go quietly.
She recalls: “I marched over to the window of the marquee, and while the Prince was shaking hands with the members of Steps, I called out to him, then pulled up my top and flashed my bra.
“I’m not sure what came over me, and it certainly wasn’t pre-meditated. If it had been, I’d have worn one of my posh bras rather than the Marks & Spencer nude one my mum had got me.”
At this time, Denise was a lads’ mag favourite, having gone from being the first non-topless Page Three girl in The Celeb Report to appearing in the glossy pages of FHM, Loaded and Esquire.” And it was thanks to one magazine, GQ, that she ended up dating Jay Kay.
The mag arranged for her to interview him at the Silverstone race track in 1998.
“I’ve always loved an innuendo, and some of mine weren’t exactly subtle,” she recalls. “I remember Jay’s jaw falling open in shock at some of the things I said.”
Things were so flirty that Denise ended up going back to his Buckinghamshire mansion that night.
They started to date. But just as their romance got going, she found herself with another unlikely suitor — Friends actor Matthew Perry.
He got her number from her agent after seeing her on TV, and left her an answerphone message saying, “I think you’re gorgeous, and I’d love to take you out on a date” — which Denise inadvertently played in front of Jay.
She says: “Knowing I was being chased by a prominent American TV star was bound to keep my new rock star boyfriend on his toes.”
The boot was on the other foot a few months later at the after-party of a Versace fashion show in Paris.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell started getting flirty with Jay — and perched herself on his lap.
Denise says: “Suddenly, the feisty Essex girl in me rose up, and I walked over to where Jay was sitting. ‘Would you mind getting off my fella’s lap?’, I said. But Naomi took no notice. I jabbed her in the ribs. Jay was mortified but I think Naomi got the message: Don’t mess with an Essex bird!”
She had another run-in with a supermodel in 2010 — when she saw Kate Moss at a celebrity party.
David Walliams introduced them, only for Kate to refuse to shake her hand, sneering: “I know who you are . . . you’re the bitch in pigtails.”
Denise was horrified, thinking Kate must have got her mixed up with someone else. But a friend later reminded her she had met Kate while in Ibiza with Jay. Even so, she still does not know what she did to offend her. She says: “I must have been so drunk when we met. I literally had no recollection.”
Wake-up call
While Denise dated Jay for three years, she says the relationship started to sour. She claims he did not like her high-octane career and was jealous of her screen chemistry with Johnny Vaughan — and Jay started to party more and more.
She says: “He’s since been very open about his coke use and what it did to him, but you can imagine what it does to a relationship.”
Denise ended up sacrificing her career and leaving the Big Breakfast to “become that perfect rock star’s wife”. Not that they were married, of course. Jay drove this home on the eve of the new millennium, when he got down on one knee at a party — only to leap up again, declaring: “Only joking!”
He did propose for real in February 2000. But Denise concluded he only did so because a “handsome pop artist” also “had a thing” for her at the time.
She said “yes”, in a last-ditch attempt to keep the relationship alive, but with her career floundering, admitted she was “utterly lost”.
Then in early 2001 came the chance to audition for Chicago in the West End. Denise saw it as an exciting career opportunity.
Jay did not agree — warning her she would only “embarrass” herself.
But Denise got the part — and also, finally, the confidence to leave the “toxic” relationship.
She won rave reviews and saw the show as “a huge turning point” for her. She says: “My success in the show was a wake-up call, reminding me that I could do something on my own.”
Her career renaissance continued and Denise went from the West End, to Broadway, to being a judge on the Andrew Lloyd Webber talent search Any Dream Will Do.
There, she met winner Lee Mead, who would become her husband in 2009 and dad to their daughter Betsy, now 12, before the couple split in 2013.
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But Denise says she will always hold a special affection for her Nineties heyday. She says: “There were fabulous things happening all the time.
“It’s only now I can sit back and appreciate how incredible they actually were.”
- A Bit Of Me: From Basildon To Broadway And Back by Denise Van Outen, published by Ebury, is out now.
