Entertainment
Denise Van Outen’s new man Jimmy Barba was reality TV star in Italy and appeared in Tom Jones music video-Rachael O'Connor-Entertainment – Metro
The property developer has had a few brushes with fame!
Denise Van Outen’s new man Jimmy Barba has been on reality TV and had a short-lived pop career (Picture: Mega)
Denise Van Outen recently went public with new man Jimmy Barba after her devastating split from fiance Eddie Boxshall.
After seven years, the Gogglebox stars went their separate ways in January after Eddie was found to be sending sexually explicit messages to other women.
Mum-of-one Denise has spoken relatively openly about the break-up in interviews and in her memoir since, admitting ‘self-respect’ was keeping her from packing things up with her former partner.
Now the West End star appears to be back on top, as this week she stepped out with Jimmy on a seriously impressive date – to the lavish Grand Prix Ball in London.
The black-tie affair saw Denise and Jimmy pose on the red carpet, Jimmy leading her up the stairs by the hand to the venue, and enjoy a dinner with friends.
But who exactly is Jimmy Barba? Well, it turns out he’s had his own flirtation with fame over the years.
Denise and Jimmy turned heads as they enjoyed a seriously fancy date (Picture: Denise Van Outen/ Instagram)
We already knew Jimmy, 55, is a property developer based in London and appears to be the father of a small child, judging fromphoto posted to his social media.
However it has now been revealed that, as well as entrepreneurship, Jimmyis a reality TV star, having appeared on Big Brother in Italy, known as Grande Fratello.
The businessman appeared on the show in 2010 and finished in fourth place, missing out on the €300,000 (£258,000) prize but striking up romances with two housemates during his time in the house.
Jimmy has appeared on Big Brother as well as appearing in the music video for Tom Jones’ Sex Bomb (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
As reported by the Daily Mail, Jimmy described himself as a dancer and a farmer – and after his stint on the show Jimmy went on to have a (admittedly short-lived) pop career.
He released three singles between 2012 and 2013 but none failed to break the charts, and Jimmy moved on to property development.
However, before hitting the property world, Jimmy sang alongside the legendary Tom Jones – and even appeared in the music video for his track Sex Bomb.
According to the Mirror, Jimmy – who played the main love interest in the raunchy video – also joined Tom on stage for an episode of Top of the Pops where he gyrated with three dancers.
Even after leaving show business, Jimmy was still starstruck by the stars: in 2019 he responded to a tweet from Cheryl who asked her followers if they wanted to be her Valentine.
He responded with a simple: ‘Yep.’
The property developer has been taking Denise to red carpet events and meeting her friends (Picture: vanouten_denise/Instagram)
Jimmy also commented on photograph of sports presenter Laura Woods, who uploaded a picture of her in a new outfit to social media, offering a kissing emoji and writing: ‘Beautiful.’
Reality star, singer and property developer Jimmy is the first time Denise has been linked to a new romance since breaking things off with Eddie six months ago.
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City trader Eddie first remained tight-lipped about the cheating allegations but later admitted sending sexual messages.
However he insisted it happened only one time, after he had been drinking, and claimed other photos of women on his iPad were entirely innocent.
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MORE : Denise Van Outen goes public with new man on red carpet date after split from ex Eddie Boxshall
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