Strictly Come Dancing star Denise Van Outen claimed former colleague Johnny Vaughan tried to sabotage her career and Andrew Lloyd Webber betrayed her over a job.
Van Outen, 38, a favourite to win the BBC1 dance show, presented Channel 4’s Big Breakfast show with Vaughan, but told how their 2008 reunion on Capital FM breakfast show ended when she quit after just six months.
“Johnny didn’t really welcome me with open arms, in fact he made me feel very uncomfortable,” the actress and singer told the Daily Mail.
“He wouldn’t let me speak, would tell me when I should and shouldn’t speak and would also constantly not mention that we were joint presenters. When I would go to speak he would fade my microphone down.”
Van Outen, who met her husband Lee Mead when she was a judge and he was a contestant on BBC talent contest Any Dream Will Do, said Lloyd Webber was “involved” in the decision to drop her from the second series, Over The Rainbow, at the last minute. However, sources close to Lloyd Webber insisted the decision was made by the BBC.
The friends have since reconciled, but Van Outen said she believed she was left out of the line-up because she was pregnant with daughter Betsy, now two, — a claim denied by the BBC.
“I was upset because at that time Dannii Minogue, who was a judge on The X Factor, was pregnant as well and they just got stand-in judges,” said Van Outen. “That was what I suggested. I would have missed at most only one show. It felt unfair. I was upset at the time, but I am not bothered by it at all now.”
A spokesman on behalf Andrew Lloyd Webber said: "The BBC had complete and strict editorial control of Over The Rainbow. The decision to replace Denise Van Outen was theirs because they wanted to refresh the judging panel."
Representatives for Johnny Vaughan did not respond to a request for a comment.
