W meet Lee Mead
Tuesday 11 March 2008
After winning the hit BBC show Any Dream Will Do, Lee Mead has been signed up for another eight months of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, released a gold-selling album and even bagged himself a beautiful celebrity girlfriend in the shape of Denise Van Outen.
But has it all gone to his head?
Not a chance, and the 26-year-old Southend boy insists it never will – otherwise he and Denise would never have hit it off in the first place.
Falling for Denise
“Denise is a great girl, she’s so down-to-earth - despite her incredible career – I guess that’s part of what clicked between us,” he tells Closer. “I mean, it’s still really early days, but I think one of the reasons we get on so well is that she is so grounded – we connected because of that.”
As he says this he’s tugging sheepishly at his unruly curls, showing he still isn’t quite comfortable talking about his celebrity girlfriend.
“We’ve been made out to be practically married – but that’s far from it, it’s actually boringly normal,” he says, grinning.
It certainly didn’t start out boring. When they first met during Any Dream, where Denise was an expert, she admitted on camera she’d like to be cast as his “leading lady.” But then Lee was seeing someone else and nothing happened until three months after he split with his ex.
“I didn’t even speak to her for five months after the show,” he says. “Now it’s been a couple of months and it’s going great; we love spending time together and I really respect and admire her – but we’re hardly walking down the aisle.
“We’re really happy, we have a laugh and we have fun – that’s the important bit, isn’t it? We’re not talking moving in together or giving each other keys to our flats, we’re just taking it as it comes and enjoying ourselves.
“After all, we’re both pretty busy at the moment.”
Understatement of the year. While Denise has just re-joined her old Big Breakfast partner Johnny Vaughn on Capital radio’s breakfast show, Lee is busy promoting the second single, ‘You and Me’ off his self-titled debut album, as well as still doing eight shows of Joseph a week.
'It's not real life'
“I’m still the same person I always was,” he insists. “There are people who believe the hype and start thinking that fame is everything, but I know it’s not real life.
“I’m getting used to people recognising me in the street and saying hello, but it’s still weird.
But with the same enthusiasm that got BBC viewers voting for him in their thousands, he’s already got his sights set on new challenges.
“I’m doing the title track for a film with Mackenzie Crook that comes out in April, it’s called Three and Out,” he says. “And I’m back in the studio, working with new writers and meeting producers for a second album.”
'You and Me' in available to buy now!