Denise Van Outen Ties The Knot With Lee Mead

Friends were beginning to fear Denise Van Outen’s long-cherished wish to settle down and start a family might never come true.But yesterday she stunned them all by marrying musical star Lee Mead on a beach in the Seychelles.The couple met when Denise, 35, was a judge on BBC1’s Any Dream Will Do talent show, which 27-year-old Lee won, landing the lead role in the musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Last night a friend said: ‘Denise went away last weekend telling people she was simply going on holiday.'It was literally just her parents, his parents and a couple of her best pals.’Wearing an off-the-shoulder white dress, her hair tied back with a Seventies-style band, Denise could scarcely contain her joy during the ceremony – held in full view of other guests at the Labriz Silhouette luxury resort.Afterwards the happy couple were seen kissing on a boat.

The pair stayed for ten nights in the two-storey Presidential villa at a cost of £12,000. It is the most expensive room in the hotel and has its own pool.The simple ceremony marked the end of her much-troubled search for the right man. Despite once being labelled a ‘ladette’, Denise has described herself as ‘a traditional girl at heart’.She said: ‘I come from a big family, my parents are still together and I’m so girly, I dream of the white wedding and the big dress.’