TV star Vanessa Feltz has exclusively revealed to ED! that she had a secret boyfriend last year that she kept out of the spotlight.
The 63-year-old journalist, who has enjoyed a career in entertainment since the 1980s, is set to grace our screens next week with a new self-titled Channel 5 daytime chat show. With the show kicking off on Monday (March 24), Vanessa confessed that her dream guests include Michelle Obama and Barbra Streisand.
However, as she prepares to embrace a new chapter in her career, the former Big Brother icon is also eager to find love again.
Vanessa Feltz reveals ‘secret’ boyfriend
Over the years, Vanessa has been no stranger to documenting her relationships. In 1993, she married surgeon Michael Kurer, whom she later divorced in 2000. It then transpired that, during their relationship, he had called her “disgustingly fat“.
She later found love in Phats & Small singer Ben Ofoedu, with whom she got engaged in 2006. While the pair planned to walk down the aisle the following year, Vanessa and Ben never exchanged vows. In February 2023, the couple announced they had split after he cheated on her.
Just last month, Ben, 52, announced he was engaged to his new girlfriend, Vanessa Brown, 29, after a month of dating. While the Turn Around hitmaker has clearly moved on, his ex-fiancée also confessed she enjoyed a “secret” romance away from the spotlight.
“I was going out with someone last year that nobody found out about,” she tells ED! on behalf of Heart Bingo. “That was quite good for about four and a half to five months. But with the exception of that, I’ve been on my own the whole time since and before.”
Don’t get it twisted, however. Vanessa is not a fan of the single life.
“I’m not happy being single. I don’t like it,” she states. “I’d like to be like my pal, Linda Robson. She’s like: ‘I know I don’t need a man. I’m not interested. They’re in much more trouble than they’re worth.’ She always says: ‘I’ve got my kids, I’ve got my job, I’ve got my holidays, I’ve got my life. What the hell do I need a man for?’ I think it’s absolutely great to feel like that. But unfortunately, I don’t. I wish I did.”
‘Embarrassing and humiliating’ dating admission
Vanessa has no intentions to hurry into a new relationship, declaring she hasn’t “just copped off with the first person and rushed into it out of desperation”.
She adds: “Which is good, it means I’m making progress, doesn’t it? But I can’t pretend I don’t like [being single]. I like someone to chat to and hang out with.”
Eager to find herself a new man, dating apps are a no-go for the television personality.
“The whole thing is an absolute minefield, quite frankly. It’s so difficult. I don’t feel I can do any apps because I think I’ll just end up in the papers. I just think it would be embarrassing and humiliating,” she explained.
“I’ve got really great grandkids. I don’t want to embarrass or shame them, you know? I’m worried people will be like: ‘Did you see who just walked into Wetherspoons? It was Vanessa Feltz, yuck!’ Or if someone was texting a friend and it ends up in the paper. I just can’t face it.”
Instead, Vanessa is hoping to find her next relationship the old-fashioned way.
“I basically have to wait to either bump into someone, which doesn’t really seem to happen. I dunno how anyone really manages to do that. Or for a friend to fix me up with somebody that they know. That’s happened a few times,” she said.
As for green flags she looks out for, Vanessa expressed: “If you don’t want to nibble at them the minute you see them, you probably never will want to.”
Read more: Vanessa Feltz quits This Morning after 33 years ahead of her chat show launch: ‘I can’t do both’
Vanessa kicks off on Channel 5 and My5 from 12.30pm on Monday, March 24.
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