Denise Van Outen has spoken out about being a victim of revenge porn after a former boyfriend said he had a tape of her having sex aged 15.
The 47-year-old said her ex-boyfriend attempted to sell the tape to a newspaper in the 1990s.
The former EastEnders star's ex failed to sell the video because it was recorded when she was below the legal age of sexual consent.
The Essex-born actress referred to the incident in her new autobiography, calling the man "Mike".
Denise Van Outen spoke out against revenge porn in her new book, A Bit Of Me: From Basildon To Broadway And Back. Picture date: Wednesday October 6, 2021.
Matt Crossick
Miss Van Outen revealed in her new book, A Bit Of Me: From Basildon To Broadway And Back, police found that the man had recorded multiple girls.
The man went to court but was not jailed.
The West End star wrote: "Revenge porn is talked about a lot these days, but it wasn’t a widespread term back then.
"Looking back, Mike could be manipulative – cruel, even. We dated for over a year and in the end Mike was the boy I lost my virginity to."
Denise Van Outen said that she "felt shocked and mortified" by the tape
vanouten_denise / instagram
She explained the impact of the tape, which emerged in the 1990s: "At the time, I felt shocked and mortified. Mike had calculated the whole thing. He’d been waiting for me to make it big so he could peddle his grubby tape."
The judge, when the case went to court, told "Mike" that he would be jailed if any of the tapes' content emerged to the public.
Speaking this morning, GB New's Eamonn Holmes praised Miss Van Outen for "raising awareness" of the issue.
The GB News Presenter said: “This is a really important story and an important issue and good on Denise for raising awareness about it.
"It’s awful what she's gone through and more needs to be done to ensure those responsible for this kind of thing are punished. I know someone else in the public eye who was secretly recorded and we probably don’t talk about this enough.”
