Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan have proved there's no bad blood between them as they reunited. The iconic presenting duo stopped speaking to each other for years but have come together for a cosy snap as they show they haven't lost their cheeky charm. They first worked together back in the 90s on The Big Breakfast and last appeared on screen as a pair on Passport to Paradise in 2004. However, they came back together on Monday night as they both attended the TV Choice Awards in London. Denise rocked a red mini dress while Johnny looked smart in a black suit with bow tie. They wrapped their arms around each other in the reunion photo and even joked around with photographers.
Johnny and Denise's powerful chemistry was one of the main reasons so many tuned into The Big Breakfast. But the iconic pairing almost didn't happen as Denise, then 23, had been brought on as a traffic and travel presenter. She was covering for host Sharron Davies in September 1997 while Johnny stood in for Rick Adams. Their two-week stint on the show was enough to convince bosses they had something special. However, the good times came to an abrupt end in February 1999 when Denise announced she was leaving to pursue an acting career in ITV sitcom Babes In The Wood. Ratings plummeted and Big Breakfast was unsalvageable.
Denise finally returned in September 2000 to join Johnny for the show's final four months. But it would take almost two decades for Denise to reveal what went wrong. "At that time we were like brother and sister. We were best friends, unbreakable..." she told ITV's Loose Women in 2017. "The whole relationship fell apart when we started to renegotiate our contracts because I always felt we worked together as a team and that’s how it should be. We created it together. Not just us but the rest of the team working on the show. I always had that mentality that it was about all of us. But Johnny and I know there are other influences involved, and agents and everything - but he was negotiating separately from me.
"I found out and obviously confronted him and I realised then that our friendship had gone in two different directions and for me it was tarnished. Obviously I gave it a second go but a similar thing happened again. It's hard because I loved him so much and I still do," she continued. "I could still be angry about it now, but I have seen him since and, whenever I see him, because I love him so much and he makes me laugh so much, more than anyone I've ever met, I just forget about it. We were really, really good friends, I just don't know if it would ever be the same again.".
In 2023, the pair reunited on Steph's Packed Lunch, which marked the first time they had appeared on-screen together since BBC show Passport to Paradise in 2004. Last year, Denise teased she could be working with Johnny again as they were seen at a restaurant together. She wrote: "Writing and planning." She tagged their respective accounts and concluded by writing: "To be continued." The post included a series of throwback photos from when they worked together on the Big Breakfast. Denise also shared a clip from their reunion in 2023, which had seen them do a sketch based around the show First Dates.
