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Cooking With The Stars: Denise Van Outen heats up the kitchen

Denise joins the show as a celebrity chef.

Cooking With The Stars returns to our screens tonight (July 20), with Denise Van Outen among the celebs slaving over a hot stove.

Hosted by Emma Willis and Tom Allen, eight celebrities feature on the show.

They are each paired with a professional chef, who mentor them as they try and turn their cooking skills from amateur to professional.

Each dish is judged by the other professional chefs and each week the celebrity left in the bottom two will have to battle against each other to avoid elimination.

So what do we know about arguably the most famous Cooking With The Stars contestant Denise Van Outen and how she started out in the fame game?

All you need to know here!

denise van outen
Denise Van Outen is a contestant on 2021’s Cooking With The Stars (Credit: ITV)

What is Cooking With the Stars contestant Denise Van Outen famous for?

Denise is an actress, singer, dancer and presenter. The star was born in May 1974, which makes her currently 47-years old.

The actress has had a huge and wide-ranging career across TV, film and stage.

One of her stand-out roles was playing Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago, both in London’s West End and on Broadway in New York.

Read more: Cooking with the Stars: Hosts, celebrities, chef contestants and start date!

Denise has also been a presenter on morning show The Big Breakfast. It was here that she got her big break presenting alongside co-host Johnny Vaughan.

She also finished as runner-up on the 10th series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2012 and took part in Dancing on Ice.

In 2015, she joined the cast of EastEnders. On the show, Denise played Karin Smart, a business woman who got involved with Max Branning.

She also regularly appeared as a panellist on Loose Women between 2014-2018.

Denise Van Outen On Kissing Jake Wood | This Morning

Is Denise Van Outen married?

Denise was in a relationship with Jamiroquai lead singer Jay Kay between 1998 and 2001. They were engaged but later split up.

Read more: Celebrity Gogglebox star Shaun Ryder poses for rare snap with two of his daughters

In 2007, she began dating Any Dream Will Do winner Lee Mead. They got married in 2009 and had a daughter, Betsy, born in 2010.

Since 2014, she has been in a relationship with commodities trader Eddie Boxshall. They currently live together in Chelmsford, Essex.

You might recognise him as the couple make regular appearances on Celebrity Gogglebox together!

Denise Van Outen and Eddie Boxshall on Celebrity Gogglebox
Denise appears with partner Eddie on Celebrity Gogglebox (Channel 4)

The couple have recently had to post-pone their wedding plans due to the pandemic.

Speaking to the Sun recently, Denise said: “We’re not engaged but we are preparing to get married. It will definitely happen but we’re not in a rush.

“We don’t want a small wedding. We want a big group of people and a big party with no restrictions.

“Plus, with all the weddings that have been cancelled because of the pandemic, there’s going to be a massive backlog and I wouldn’t want to get in the way of all of them. Let them all go first!”

So what did she say about her daughter?

Mum-of-one Denise has previously opened up about her daughter Betsy’s learning difficulties.

The 11 year old has been diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia and, according to Denise, transferred to a specialist education school when she was seven.

‘”We’ve known since she was quite little, but I had a bit of a battle at the school because she was having SEN [special education needs] classes and being taken out of her group.

“I could see it was affecting her,” she said.

However, since then, Betsy has been doing much better in school.

“She’s so much happier. She jumps up every morning wanting to go to school. It’s all about visual learning and giving them the time to process everything,” she said.

She co-parents Betsy with ex-partner Lee.

Cooking With The Stars Trailer 2021 | M&S FOOD

Cooking With The Stars is on Tuesdays on ITV at 8pm.

So will you be watching? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know.