The Odd Couple

SHE is the trendy blonde TV presenter, the star of the hottest parties in town. He is the scruffy rock star who prefers to hide away in his moated manor house.

But against all the odds they have ended up as the fairytale showbusiness couple who look destined to live happily ever after.

When Denise Van Outen first met Jay Kay from Jamiroquai at Silverstone race track last year he had never seen her as Johnny Vaughan's flirtatious foil on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast. Being a pop star he seldom rose before noon.

And Denise, a down-to-earth Basildon girl, was hardly a Jamiroquai fan.

But the attraction of opposites always makes for the best love stories.

Now Denise and Jay, 29, have spoken for the first time about their love and their life together.

As they affectionately snuggle up to each other, it is difficult to recognise them as Britain's premier celebrity couple.

They are not interested in exploiting their relationship, they say. In fact car-mad Jay claims he's only here because he's waiting delivery of a vintage Aston Martin and the studio is nearer to the garage than his Buckinghamshire manor.

"I've got a nice girlfriend, I'm happy," he says. "I've never had a relationship like this before."

Asked if marriage and children are on the cards, he says: "Yeah. They're just around the corner really.

"I want to get this album and tour out of the way first," he says, referring to Synkronized, his fourth album.

"I'm looking forward to settling down a bit, not taking the edge off myself, but thinking about family and the things that matter a lot more than the music business."

Jay, who has a pounds 15 million fortune, is a great believer in fate. He says he met Denise "because I needed it. I needed someone to come into my life who was just decent and understood me. Someone who loved me..."

He says he has no fears that his rock 'n' roll lifestyle will threaten their relationship.

"I have to work with women, she has to work with men. Different things go on. You've got to have trust. I've been with too many bad women to risk throwing this away.'

"You get to a stage when you've got money in your pocket and a nice place to live. It's hard to find someone who's into you and not what you've got. I like to think that I'm with someone who'd like me the same if I had nothing.

"We had an argument the other day about how to slice a tomato. It lasted one minute."

Jay admits that many of the reports about their rampant love life are true. "We have a healthy, solid sex life, but it's a balance - it's not just voracious. We've all done those behind-the-bike-sheds, the after-show hotel-room scenes. You can't do that every day like nutters, you get bored.

"Then again, we don't see each other all the time. This year, when I'm on tour, we'll hardly see each other at all, so when we do get together, there's a lot of ripping going on."

It's hard to reconcile the girl in dungarees sitting next to him with the saucy TV presenter.

Perhaps love has changed her? Certainly she now has eyes for only one man. She tells me about a recent trip to a nightclub when she found herself watching Jay go through his moves on the dancefloor, moonwalks and all.

"Normally if I'm out with a guy and he's up for a dance, there's always a part of me that's thinking, please don't embarrass me," she winces.

"This girl came up to me and said, 'You're really in love with him, aren't you? I've been sitting watching you and you're completely in love'. I thought, God I'd better stop that."

When Denise left The Big Breakfast she had no immediate plans but she has since landed a plum role in "a really good British movie" - yet to be revealed. She will also be shooting another series of Babes In The Wood.

But she's most excited about a new game show in the pipeline which she helped write and produce.

All this work has done nothing to upset their relationship - "I think it's become much stronger." She admits still getting butterflies every time she sees Jay.

Having just returned from Bermuda, the couple are soon flying off to New York. He's promoting Synkronzied, she's shopping. "I need to buy things for him like underpants and socks."

That sounds terribly domesticated - what about marriage? "If he asked me, I'd say yes," she confesses.

And when it comes to babies, she says: "I don't want to put pressure on him, but if we got married, I'd have lots of children.

"We're soulmates. I feel so comfortable with him. Even on that first day at Silverstone I knew that we would always be good mates. Now I can't imagine being without him."

l A fuller version of this article appears in the latest edition of Elle magazine, out now.

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