Denise van Outen (born Denise Kathleen Outen on 27 May 1974) is an English actress, singer, dancer and presenter. She is best known for presenting The Big Breakfast, for playing Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago both in the West End and on Broadway and for finishing as runner-up in the tenth series of the BBC One dancing show Strictly Come Dancing.

Biography

From 1998 to 2001, she dated Jamiroquai lead singer Jay Kay. Engaged, they split up in 2001. His album A Funk Odyssey is mostly about their break-up, with the song "Little L" expressing his fight against cocaine addiction during that period. From 2003, she dated "Brown's" club owner Richard Traviss, but split up with him in May 2005. In 2007, she dated fellow ex-Sylvia Young Theatre School student James Lance for a few weeks.

In November 2007, she began dating Any Dream Will Do winner, Lee Mead. The couple announced their engagement on 29 January 2009, and married in the Seychelles in April 2009. Their daughter was born on 1 May 2010, with one official photo released to publications in exchange for donations to The Louis Dundas Centre at Great Ormond Street Hospital. In July 2013 the couple released a joint statement stating that they had split but remained good friends.


Charity
Van Outen actively supports Breast Cancer Care and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In 2009 she climbed Mt Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief, and in 2013 took part in a trek across the Great Wall of China for the Royal Marsden Hospital.