Denise van Outen

At the start of her TV career, presenting the Saturday morning kid's TV show Massive!, Denise found herself at the centre of a controversy concerning an appearance on the show by horror-themed magician Simon Drake. During his appearance, Drake performed a version of Sawing a Woman in Half on Denise in which, as he sawed through her, blood poured from the box and she screamed in apparent agony before passing out. Having sawed through the box and separated Denise's halves, Drake simply walked between them and out of shot as the show cut to a commercial break. The graphic nature of the illusion, and the fact that Denise was not restored into one piece before the show cut to commercials, led to viewer complaints and the show being warned by regulators to moderate it's content. Despite the complaints and warning, Drake made several other appearances on the show to perform illusions on Denise.

Denise had a sunbed addiction when she was a teenager, which has left her with pigmentation scars on her face.

In April 2008, it was confirmed that Denise would carry the Beijing Olympic torch for part of the London leg.