Kids' TV icon Kirsten O'Brien once asked Declan Donnelly out - because presenter Fearne Cotton told her to.
The CBBC star, 50, recalled the story on Steph's Packed Lunch in which she opened up about the awkward experience.
She told Steph McGovern, 39: “Based on the fact that he was single and I had a dream that we were together and it just seemed to make so much sense.
"The next day I was with Fearne Cotton and she egged me on, but didn’t give me his number, gave me his agent’s number. Wise girl.
“So I ended up ringing his agent and going – I can remember it so clearly – ‘He’s single, I’m single, ask him if he wants to go out for a boogie.’ Like it was the 70s.
"He never got back to me!”
Kirsten, who is now married with a 10-year-old son, Fox Michael Drake and twins born in 2017, was once the toast of kids' TV.
The Middlesborough-born presenter hosted programmes including art show SMart and CBeebies spin-off Smarteenies.
Kirsten and Fearne, 40, who also started out on kids' TV were at one point some of the most recognisable faces on TV.
However the presenter revealed that she often gets mistaken for Steph as the two both hail from the same neck of the woods.
Welcoming the star to the show, Steph said: “It’s so nice to have you here because I spend my life telling everyone I’m not you.”
Kirsten laughed and said: “And I do the same… My nephew is adamant that you are me!”
Steph added: “I always get people saying to me ‘I loved you when you did that SMart show on TV’… But we do exist as two individual humans, blonde girls from ‘Boro.”
Kirsten then joked: “And I get Tweets going, ‘You’re doing great at your Olympics coverage’, or whatever you’re up to…”
Despite turning down Kirsten, Dec went onto find love, marrying Ali Astall in 2015.
The Britain's Got Talent host chose to get hitched in his childhood church in Newcastle with Dec's co-star Ant McPartlin on best man duties.
Dec and Ali became parents in 2018 when their daughter Isla Elizabeth Anne was born.
Steph’s Packed Lunch airs weekdays at 12.30pm on Channel 4 and All 4.
