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Loose Women star Denise Welch teared up as she opened up about the moment she discovered the truth about a “friend”. The 67-year-old has been a regular face on the ITV panel show since 2018, having previously appeared 2005 and 2013.

More recently she has also seen her career pivot back to acting, returning to Waterloo Road after a 15-year absence. She has reprised the role of hopeless supply teacher Steph Haydock as well as landing roles in Russell T Davies’ new series Tip Toe and the adaptation of Graham Norton’s novel Forever Home.

Throughout her career Denise has been open about both the highs and lows of fame, as well as her battles with drugs and alcohol, postnatal depression, and most recently her diagnosis with ADHD. In the throes of her addiction, Denise became tabloid fodder, joking that the Press “hated it” when she got sober “because they didn’t have any front pages any more”.

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In a conversation with The Guardian, Denise recalled one heartbreaking moment when she made a new friend, a “poor little rich girl” who invited her to take a trip on a boat on the Thames after meeting on a night out in London. Denise says she gave the girl her phone number and the pair chatted daily for “pretty much three weeks”.

It was then however Denise had a terrible realisation. She explained: “After three weeks I went to do a photoshoot in Spain. And I got the dreaded Saturday afternoon phone call saying we’re running a story about you tomorrow.

“I got my friend to go to King’s Cross station, where you used to get the first papers at 10.30pm, and he said, ‘It’s not good.’ I was devastated. It turned out this person had been a journalist sent to entrap me into a friendship for three weeks.”

She declined to reveal what the story was when asked by The Guardian. Tearing up she added: “It just was not good. It’s stuff that you’d say to a person you thought was a friend. I get upset thinking about it. It’s horrible.”

Denise says the betrayal felt “worse” because she naturally trusts people, describing herself as a “people pleaser”. She says she never saw the woman again, although she did pick up the phone one morning when she called her up, but this time she didn’t talk about her life, instead firing back at her former friend.

Elsewhere Denise recently opened up about her latest family addition. She revealed she recently became a grandmother as husband Lincoln Townley’s eldest son Lewis welcomed baby Theo into the world with his wife Elizabeth.

Speaking on the Loose Women: Just Between Us podcast, Denise explained that becoming a grandparent has been transformative for both her and Lincoln, describing Theo as a child who has “changed our lives”.

“I’ve got Theo, my grandson, who has just changed our lives. We are obsessed with that child,” Denise said. “He is my stepson Lewis’s child, and he’s wonderful.”

Denise, who is also mum to The 1975 frontman Matty Healy and actor Louis Healy from her previous marriage to Tim Healy, stressed that she and Lincoln are fortunate to have a healthy and happy relationship with Theo’s parents.

Denise says every moment the couple spend with Theo is a pleasure, unlike some grandparents who she says feel an obligation to offer childcare. “We beg and plead to have him,” she explained. “We’re not like some of my friends who are kind of forced into a grandparent babysitter situation. When we have him, it’s a joy.”

However, Denise admitted to co-star Judi Love that there are moments when she and Lincoln privately question certain parenting decisions — though she is quick to acknowledge it is not their place to interfere.

“There are times when both Lincoln and I have to take a deep intake of breath because we don’t necessarily agree,” she said. “But it’s their child, and it works for them.”