Denise Van Outen thinks its "nice" to live with Eddie Boxshall.
Denise Van Outen
The 'Loose Women' panellist and her partner of four years have bought a house in Essex and she was "ready" to return to sharing her space with another adult because she was starting to feel "lonely" in the Kent farmhouse she and her seven-year-old daughter Betsy - who she has with ex-husband Lee Mead - called home.
She said: "I feel ready to have the company, it's nice. I started to feel really lonely in the country; the last year I lived there it crept up on me, which is bizarre as I always loved it.
"I thought, 'Oooh I'm on my own again.' You want someone to watch TV and cook with.
"You don't always have to be talking, it's just knowing that the person is there.
"I never had that so I'm looking forward to it."
And Denise realised she needed to move when Betsy began to complain about how little there was to do.
She told HELLO! magazine: "It felt idyllic but we were very remote.
"I started to feel a bit closed in and it was too far from London for Eddie to move in.
"One Saturday, Betsy said, 'There isn't much to do is there?' She didn't want to go to this place or that as we'd done it the previous week. It was like she'd outgrown it and needed stimulation...
"That lifestyle suits a big family if you're all together and entertain each other but there was just the two of us.
"Betsy would go to bed and I'd be on my own."
The 44-year-old actress always dreamed of having a house full of "kids and chaos" and though that never happened for her, she's hoping moving closer to her friends will give her more opportunities to entertain.
She said: "If I'd had my way, or if it had worked out differently, I'd have loved a house full of kids and chaos but it didn't happen that way. That's what we're trying to create now with the new home as it's much closer to where we know a lot of people and we'll do a lot of entertaining."
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