BASILDON girl turned Broadway star Denise Van Outen is about to launch a 'candid memoir'.

Said to be "explosive and revealing", A Bit Of Me is the first book from Denise, who shot to national fame thanks to her down-to-earth personality and Essex sparkle shown on the Big Breakfast show.

It is due out in stores on March 3, 2022.

Also known back in the Nineties for being one of the original 'ladettes', Denise went on to become a West End star and primetime TV favourite, who has had a career in showbiz spanning 30 years.

She reveals for the first time the true story of grit and graft in the book, and speaks openly and sensitively about her rollercoaster career, her struggles in a past high-profile relationship and the betrayal she suffered at the hands of those once closest to her.

She says she hopes that in doing so, she can help empower others to avoid and overcome any similar difficulties they may face.

Denise shot to fame in her early twenties.

The TV stardom came a decade after grafting through lower-profile TV work, when she was finally living the dream as one of the Big Breakfast hosts.

However her life soon turned into a nightmare off-screen and behind the headlines as her heart was broken in a very public relationship, whilst her every move was printed in the tabloids thanks to her phone being tapped.

Her TV career was also plummeting, so she accepted an offer to play Roxie in Chicago, which turned out to be a life-changing experience.

The role took her to Broadway, where she caught the eye of Andrew Lloyd Webber, eventually landing a judging role on Any Dream Will Do, which saw her rise back to primetime TV and the career that she loves, where she has stayed and flourished.

Other West End credits include Tell Me on a Sunday, Legally Blonde, Rent and her one-woman show Some Girl I Used to Know.

In 2020, she starred to great acclaim in Cabaret All Stars at Proud Embankment.

She is a regular face on TV, with more recent appearances on Richard Osman's House of Games, Celebrity Sewing Bee - which she won - and Dancing on Ice.

She also appears on Celebrity Gogglebox with her partner Eddie Boxshall, from their home in Basildon, where they live with Denise's daughter.

Patsy O'Neil from Ebury Publishing, the company launching the book, said: "Now, in A Bit Of Me, Denise tells her story with disarming candour, unafraid to reveal vulnerabilities beneath the cheerful exterior.

"Tackling difficult subjects of corrosive self-doubt, betrayal, invasions of privacy and professional struggles, interjected with the familiar humour that we all know and love, A Bit of Me is personal, at times raw, often mischievous and always compelling. Denise has lived the life, learned the lessons, and Basildon to Broadway and back is a hell of a journey."