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ITV Loose Women's Denise Welch shares horrifying domestic abuse incident in pub

Loose Women star and actress Denise Walsh spoke out about a relationship that took a dark turn in a bid to help others

(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Denise Welch of Loose Women courageously recounted her harrowing experiences with domestic abuse live on the show.

The Coronation Street actress told viewers of a shocking incident when a former partner once hurled a table at someone simply for smiling at her.


At 66, Denise divulged the distressing details of this traumatic relationship with an individual she did not name.


Read more EastEnders star sparks concern with 'saddest week ever' post after diagnosis

Speaking on Loose Women, she said: "I fell in love with this incredibly charismatic man, very, very good-looking, and I thought that my whole life had aligned and this was the person for me."

But she soon realised it wasn't all roses.

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Denise recalled the awful incident with the table, adding: "Before I was on the telly, nobody knew who I was, we were sat in a restaurant together and I was facing the door.

"The door opened and a couple walked in, and we just made eye contact, so I smiled at them and they smiled at me.

"He saw, he turned around and he looked at the guy, and I'm not going to say exactly what he said, but the table went up and he said, 'You want to... my girlfriend, right?'


"You can imagine that any normal person listening to that story would say, 'Why did you not just leave?'

"But you are so desperate to change that person, and they make you feel like you are the centre of their life."

Denise also confessed her ex had started to "chip, chip, chip away at my personality", adding: "Personality traits that I thought made me quite popular suddenly became detrimental, and he would say things like, 'You know your friends aren't laughing with you, they're laughing at you.'


"'You know, when you told that joke that they all laughed at, why did you tell that joke? It was rude.

"They were all rolling their eyes at each other,' and you start to slowly believe."

She also said she had started to be cut off from her family too.


"What they do is as well, is that they very, very often have a dysfunctional family of their own. And this is sort of a part of narcissistic personality disorder," she elaborated.

"Because I was close to my family, bearing in mind probably three phone calls a week from a call box, because we didn't have mobile phones, I was obsessed with my family.

"And so they very slowly start to bring you apart, but also the jealousy that comes, which is unbelievable, is because it's your fault."

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Denise is now happily married to Lincoln Townley, a millionaire contemporary artist and ex-PR manager hailing from London.

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