Denise Welch confirms marriage split

Denise Welch fought back tears as she revealed on live TV that she has separated from husband Tim Healy.

The actress, who recently won Celebrity Big Brother, confessed they split "some time ago".

She used an appearance on chat show Loose Women, which she co-hosts, to reveal the end of their marriage. The couple, who have two children, have been married for more than 23 years.

Denise, 53, shocked many TV viewers with her antics on Channel Five's Celebrity Big Brother when she appeared topless after boozing, and tried to pull another contestant's pyjama bottoms down.

Denise spoke out after she was pictured with another man at the weekend. Shee told viewers of the ITV1 show: "My family made a decision that we would talk about this today.

"Tim and I separated some time ago and so I'm not having an affair; we've been living our own lives for some time now. But the press furore after I came out of Celebrity Big Brother naively took us by storm.

"There's been nothing in the papers that my family didn't know about. And I just wanted to say today to thank everybody for their support."

Denise continued: "Tim and I feel a sense of relief that we don't have to hide this any more.

"I left the house last night to come to London with great hugs from Tim, great hugs from the boys."

She added: "The kids love us very much and they wanted me to do this today because if you do it via a newspaper or magazine they can use the wrong headlines and put it into the words that they want."

Her Loose Women co-star Sherrie Hewson praised her for baring her soul: "Everybody loves you. We all love you. You are very brave, and very honest."