Thursday, 29 April 2010

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Denise Welch: I left message for lover on husband's phone

Loose Women star says she felt sick

Denise Welch was caught out by husband Tim Healy

Denise Welch has revealed her husband Tim Healy found out she was cheating when she left a message for her secret lover on his voicemail.  

The Loose Women host embarked on a steamy affair with carpenter Steve Murray after they met on BBC show Down To Earth in 2004. 

'My insides turned over and I wanted to be sick,' Denise, now 51, says in her autobiography Pulling Myself Together.

'Instantly I realised my mistake: I had dialled Tim instead of Steve and left a message that ended with "Love you!" It was clearly for someone other than Tim, and clearly directed at a man.

'I hadn't registered, because they both had the same generic Orange answer-phone message. What a f***ing nightmare.'

Denise, who played barmaid Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street, ended her relationship with Steve after the incident - but they briefly rekindled their fling. 

'I kept promising that I wasn't seeing Steve,' she says. 'I thought that I was getting away with it.

'Then I slipped up again by saying the wrong thing and Tim found out for a second time.'

Denise and Tim, who got married in 1988, are still together.

They are parents to sons Matthew, 20, and Louis, 8.