After quitting hit 90s TV show The Big Breakfast, Denise Van Outen has now apologised to her co-star, Johnny Vaughan.
Denise, 51, left the Channel 4 programme in 1999, having initially been close to fellow broadcaster Johnny, 59.
However, their friendship broke down, she previously claimed, after she discovered he’d been renegotiating his contract separately.
In 2017, she said their sibling-like bond was once ‘unbreakable’, but the pay row left her feeling that it had been ‘tarnished’ as they had always ‘worked together as a team’.
Denise did return to Big Breakfast for Johnny’s final three months in 2001, and she’s said their relationship has now gone ‘full-circle’, allowing them to be pals once again.
But rekindling that friendship has brought with it some grovelling.
Appearing on Johnny’s Radio X drive time show on Thursday evening, Denise said sorry to the host for ‘letting him down’ earlier in their careers, having left Big Breakfast ‘too early’.
‘Talking big shows, Denise is going to have a big show. Denise, in there, will you be talking about any friends that have let you down? Will you be being that candid?’, Johnny began as he quizzed Denise on her upcoming stage show, which offers ‘a behind-the-scenes insight into the world of theatre and TV’.
‘No, not really. Because I don’t really feel like any of my friends have ever let me down,’ Denise replied.
When asked if she has ever been the one to let a friend down, she admitted: ‘A million times over.’
Probed on who she would like to apologise to as a result, Denise quipped that ‘the list is very long’.
‘Do you know what? I’m going to apologise to you first,’ she told Johnny earnestly.
‘You’re going to like this, because I feel like that I left the Big Breakfast too early,’ the Celebrity Gogglebox star continued.
‘You did! Yeah, you let me down,’ Johnny told her, to which she agreed: ‘I did let you down.’
‘Because of that funky guy with the big hat. You let me down.’
‘I was in love; I was young,’ she defended, referring to her relationship with Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay, which lasted between 1999 and 2001.
Denise added that she was offered ‘so many opportunities’ at the time, with Johnny commenting that she ‘started smelling the dollars’ after ‘everyone was waving money’ at her.
‘They weren’t waving the dollar; they were waving opportunity!’, Denise retorted.
After the clip of the interview moment was shared on Instagram, fans were keen to let the duo know how much they’d missed their partnership.
‘Great banter just like the old days, please bring back The Big Breakfast and have these two present it again’, commented @bestisyettocomepeople12.
‘I miss the banter from these two amazing people ✊’, echoed @richard.sandiford75.
‘If the Big Breakfast came back on our screens tomorrow, you guys would just pick up from where you left off, still have the spark and incredibly funny ❤️🔥👏’, @d.j.m.a.z wrote.
Others declared them a ‘legendary’ duo, declaring that they ‘made my mornings’ on the show.
Speaking previously about her fallout with Johnny, Denise told the Loose Women that, after learning Johnny had been discussing contracts without her, she ‘knew at that point it would never be the same in that working environment.’
‘Obviously, I gave it a second go, but a similar thing happened again. It’s hard because I loved him so much, and I still do,’ she added in 2017.
At its peak, The Big Breakfast was drawing in two million viewers per episode. Replacements were brought in after Denise left, but ratings only plummeted, as they were unable to recreate the chemistry.
‘I could still be angry about it now, but I have seen him since, and whenever I see him, because I love him so much and he makes me laugh so much, more than anyone I’ve ever met, I just forget about it.
‘We were really, really good friends; I just don’t know if it would ever be the same again.’
Denise and Johnny also hit a rough patch in 2008, reuniting for a show on Capital Radio but going their separate ways after she claimed he controlled the broadcast and would turn her mic down.
Thankfully, in the years since, they’ve been able to work on things.
After several years of not speaking, they reconnected during the pandemic, realising that the tension was ‘not worth it’.
Denise told The Mirror: ‘Johnny and I have had a bit of a rocky relationship over the years for various reasons, and, funnily enough, we’ve messaged a lot in lockdown.
‘These situations make you reflect and realise some of the silly niggles and arguments you have are just not worth it.’
Johnny added to Metro last September: ‘I’ve only ever found [Denise] hilarious. She might have fallen out with me, but I never fell out with her. I just love Denise; won’t hear a word against her.
‘Sometimes you don’t spot things, which is me being maybe insensitive, and I really apologise to her for that. But we’ve done Gogglebox; I see her quite a bit, speak to her most weeks still.
‘No matter how we’ve fallen out, she’s always been there for me, and I hope she feels I’ve always been there for her.’
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