Denise van Outen has revealed she turned down a job as Strictly Come Dancing host before it was given to Tess Daly.
The 48-year-old TV presenter said her late friend Bruce Forsyth wanted her to be his sidekick when the show first launched back in 2004.
But when Bruce told her the format of the hit BBC celebrity dance show, Denise thought it “sounded boring”.
Speaking to entrepreneur and investor Matt Haycox on The Matt Haycox Show, she said: “When they first came up with the idea, I was offered Strictly Come Dancing.
“I knew Bruce Forsyth really well. And I've done a few shows with him. We used to sing together.”
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Denise explained: “He [Bruce] came to me and approached me to be sidekick in the new Strictly Come Dancing.
“He said to me, ‘There's this show, it's all ballroom, it's gonna be celebrities’. And he said, “I want to open the show with a song and dance with you, and close it with you - because he knew that I danced and sang.
“I remember sitting there and I went to him ‘Bruce, it sounds really boring!’
“So, they gave it to Tess Daly. Then it became a huge hit, and I was thinking maybe I was an idiot turning that down.”
Praising how well Tess has done on the show, Denise added: “But, actually, when I look back, Tess has done it so well for many years, but just kind of does that, and she's associated with it.
“Whereas, I went on to do Broadway, I've done film, I've done theatre in the West End - I've done so many other things.
"And, I wouldn't have had such a varied career if I’d taken it. So, actually, for me, it worked out.”
The mum-of-one, who shares 12-year-old daughter Betsy with ex-husband Lee Mead, said she needs to have variety in her life – because she has ADHD.
She told the podcast this means she “gets bored very quickly, so I have to do different things”.
This is why she prefers doing live TV rather than shooting scenes in films which can “take forever”.
“Variety is the main thing for me, because I have ADHD. So I do get bored very quickly. So, I just like to do different things,” Denise explains.
“I just think when I do anything, like films, where it takes forever to shoot a scene, I do find it a bit tedious.
"You can end up shooting a scene for three or four days, just one scene on different cameras.
“But anything live, whether it’s presenting or a live stage performance, live radio. That’s my bag.”
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