Eddie Boxshall admits to sending 20 sexts behind Denise Van Outen’s back

Eddie Boxshall has claimed that Denise Van Outen ‘screamed obscenities’ at him and threw him out their house as he admitted to swapping sext messages.

The commodities trader, 49, said he sent up to 20 sext messages behind Denise’s back as he addressed their split after seven years together.

He said Denise, 47, ‘screamed’ at him and kicked him out in November after confronting him over the sext messages and photographs she found on his iPad.

Eddie said he had sent all the messages to a woman he met online on one night after having a few drinks but denied cheating on Denise on any other occasion.

Speaking of their row, he told The Sun: ‘She was in a rage, screaming obscenities at me, that she didn’t want me in her life any more, and my life was going to be ruined without her, then she physically helped me out of the house.’

Eddie said he feels ashamed and ‘deeply regrets’ sending the messages and said he has contacted his presenter ex-girlfriend many times to apologise.

He admitted he had broken Denise’s trust and said he had hoped their relationship would be able to survive his mistake but added that he respects her decision.

He added: ‘I knew my actions had broken us. But I still hoped that our seven-year relationship was strong enough to withstand a mistake I made at a very dark time in my life.’

Eddie said he has been struggling over the last six months and turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism, but said he has begun to feel more positive in recent weeks.

Addressing the pictures on his iPad, Eddie said Denise found a photograph of a woman’s cleavage, a picture of him posing with an ex-girlfriend, whose contact picture was a raunchy snap, and saw his screensaver had been a selfie of them.

But Eddie firmly denied cheating on Denise with either women and said the picture of him and his ex-girlfriend was taken when he randomly bumped into her with a group of friends.

He claimed he made the photograph his screensaver by mistake and accidentally took a screenshot of it, while he said the risqué contact picture was set when they were in a relationship and he had forgotten about it.

Addressing the picture Denise found of another woman’s cleavage, Eddie said the photograph had been sent to him unsolicited as he claimed the snaps were ‘innocent’.

Speaking about the sexts, Eddie said he sent them during a difficult time, when he was accused of gross misconduct by his former employers SCB & Associates in 2017, with a court date set for October 2018.

He said he turned to alcohol and was suffering from crippling panic attacks as his legal costs racked up to tens of thousands of pounds.

Eddie admitted he felt too ashamed to confide in Denise about his financial problems as they were trying to find a home together, and instead confided in a woman who had messaged him on Instagram in April 2018.

He said he had sent up to 20 sext messages to the woman after having a few drinks one night, but felt like an ‘idiot’ when he woke up the next morning and told the woman it shouldn’t have happened.

Eddie said they didn’t exchange any more risqué messages but remained friends for a few months, before they stopped talking completely in November 2018.

The trader said he had considered telling Denise at the time but was suffering with his mental health and later told himself he hadn’t had an affair as he hadn’t met up with the woman.

Speaking of their split, Eddie said he can understand why Denise didn’t want to work on their relationship as they had become distant over the past year but said he will always love her.

Eddie said he hadn’t planned to speak out about their split and claimed he begged Denise not to, but said he had decided to address it after Denise spoke of the split in multiple interviews.

MailOnline has contacted Denise’s representatives for comment. 

Denise has spoken about their split on a number of occasions and earlier this month told of the moment she had to tell her 12-year-old daughter Betsy.

Denise, who co-parents Betsy with ex-husband Lee Mead, said sharing the news with her daughter was the ‘worst part’ about the break-up.

‘It tore me apart watching her cry while I tried to make her understand,’ Denise recalled to OK! magazine. 

Taking Eddie back was not an option for the TOWIE narrator, as she went on to explain.

‘I’ve got too much self respect and I just can’t live that that. I felt like, in a few selfish moments, he’d ruined it. I couldn’t imagine it ever feeling the same,’ she admitted.

The Essex native believes she is better equipped to deal with heartbreak now, and admitted reflecting on the past has made her appreciate her career more. 

A specific moment she detailed to OK! was performing in Chicago on Broadway shortly after her split from Jamiroquai star Jay Kay.

‘My memories of that are that I was still really heartbroken. When you’re in the middle of a heartbreak you don’t see anything but that. But now, when I look back, I go, “Wow that was an incredible thing to do”,’ she explained. 

Denise has just completed The Masked Singer Live Tour, which she admitted has left her with ‘post-tour blues’.

She has also been working on her own music and is set to DJ at a number of festivals in the summer. 

But the one venture Denise has set her sights on above all is landing a role in a play,  with the star adding how she is optimistic about the work she has coming up.