I confronted the woman my love rat ex was having phone sex with, reveals Denise Van Outen
DENISE Van Outen figured out how her love rat partner was hiding his tracks — and then confronted the woman he was sharing sex messages with.
The TV favourite was told fiancé Eddie Boxshall had gone on her phone to block the woman from contacting her on Instagram in a bid to keep their relationship secret.
She went on to learn he had been doing the same with another woman too, even while they were planning their wedding. He had also met with a third and had a pub bust-up with her boyfriend.
In autobiography A Bit of Me, 47-year-old Denise reveals the details of why she dumped Boxshall last year — and how she finally caught him out by turning detective and searching a deleted folder on his iPad.
Denise says: “There were Instagram messages alluding to phone sex with a woman. I quickly found the woman’s profile by her screen name only to discover I’d previously blocked her on my Instagram account — which struck me as odd.
“This was a woman who I didn’t know, who’d clearly had an online connection with my boyfriend.
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“Why had I blocked her?
“Straight away I unblocked her and sent her a message asking how she knew Eddie. ‘Oh, you’ve unblocked me then,’ came the fast reply. ‘I don’t even know you, why would I block you?’
“She suggested that Eddie had probably gone into my phone and blocked her so she couldn’t message me.
“Her name was Tracy and she had apparently spoken to Eddie over FaceTime and text for a long period — often from our home and sometimes from my flat in Hampstead, which she seemed to think was his.
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“They’d never met in person, but she said the conversations had become sexual reasonably quickly. Some of the stuff I found on the phone seemed to support that.
“However she was upset with Eddie by then, because he had apparently ghosted her. ‘I hope you’re not angry with me,’ she wrote. ‘I’m not a homewrecker’.
“I didn’t want to rant at her but I couldn’t believe she thought this was acceptable.
“She was a similar age to me, with a child of her own, and in my book sexual chats on FaceTime and text and continued communication over a long period amount to cheating. It was disrespectful and devastatingly hurtful.”
The Gogglebox star — with Eddie for seven years — insists she had never checked anyone’s devices before. But her suspicions were raised in November 2021 when Eddie promised to lend her his iPad and then refused to let her take it. He whisked it upstairs for ages before handing it over.
She recalls: “It struck me that he was stalling for some reason. I laughed to myself, thinking he might be getting rid of something he didn’t want me to see — dodgy memes or banter with his mates.
“When I arrived at my London flat and met my friend Alfie, I joked that we should take a peek.
“In among photos deleted from the photo library, but not from the ‘recently deleted’ folder, was a screenshot of a woman’s breasts. ‘Best get ready for bed’ the message — sent at midnight — accompanying the picture said.”
Her name was Tracy and she had apparently spoken to Eddie over FaceTime and text for a long period — often from our home and sometimes from my flat in Hampstead, which she seemed to think was his.
The date showed the exchange took place while Denise was in Spain alone, after Eddie pulled out of a romantic trip to their apartment, claiming he “didn’t feel well”.
On her return, he admitted to her there had been “a bit of trouble” between him and a woman he had met in the pub.
She says: “I didn’t know it then but the trouble in question was apparently a confrontation between him and the woman’s boyfriend.
“Now, looking at the iPad, I asked myself, was this the reason he didn’t go to Spain? Was this the reason he was always going out doused in aftershave?”
As she scrolled further through the folder of deleted images, Denise — then starring in cabaret Proud — found selfies of Eddie with another woman in a bar, taken while she was at home alone after booking time off for a night with him.
He also made the woman’s picture his screensaver that night.
She confronted Eddie the following day and threw him out when he refused to come clean.
Denise, who has a daughter aged 11, says: “As far as the woman showing her boobs went, Eddie said he didn’t know why she’d sent the picture. When the story came out, I received messages from people saying they’d seen them together. As for the second woman, ‘a friend’ was the best he could do.
“It transpired she was an ex from 2013. He swore he’d met up with her as she’d just been to her father’s funeral. I later discovered he died a year and a half earlier.
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“If there was nothing in it, why all the secrecy? And having one of those shots as his screensaver was the biggest red flag of all!”
- A Bit Of Me: From Basildon To Broadway and Back, published by Ebury Spotlight, is on sale now.
At last it’s a celeb tale worth the telling
By Laura Armstrong
WITH celeb autobiographies ten a penny, how refreshing it is to read one from someone who has something to really say.
Former wild child Denise Van Outen has raucous tales of raucous antics to beat the best of them.
But her autobiography is not just a whirlwind of drunken showbiz tales.
Denise has led a rollercoaster life, and while many of the experiences she reflects on are uplifting, there are darker moments. There can’t be many people who would voluntarily open those wounds publicly.
Yet her account is bold, candid and inspiring in its honesty. She writes she is being open about her difficult past now in a bid to “set a good example” for daughter Betsy, 11.
There are plenty of celebs out there flogging bargain bin-bound volumes about their fake tan secrets who could take a leaf out of her book.
