Loose Women star Denise Welch has opened up about the horror domestic abuse battle she faced with a former partner.

Today (March 17) Loose Women aired a special episode dedicated to domestic abuse. And some of the panellists opened up about their experiences.

Denise, 66, bravely spoke about her own history of domestic abuse, and just how extreme her situation got before she managed to get away from it. While she confirmed it wasn’t a physically abusive relationship, it was extremely emotionally abusive and manipulative.

The star didn’t share the identity of her abuser.

Denise shared her abuse story (Credit: ITV)

Denise Welch recalls abuse from ex-partner

Denise explained that her relationship with her abuser slowly took away any self-identity that she had. And, over time, his manipulation and emotional abuse made her lose a whole part of herself.

She began: “I fell in love with this incredibly charismatic man. He was very, very good looking. And I thought that my whole life had aligned and this was the person for me.”

However, it wasn’t long before Denise realised the relationship wasn’t actually as happy as she thought it was. And she began to realise there was abuse going on.

Speaking about how she was losing herself, Denise explained: “Then of course, you don’t realise what is happening. So he started to chip away at my personality.”

But for Denise, she believes that her abuser undermined her confidence and took away the parts of her that made her who she was.

She continued: “Personality traits that I thought made me quite popular suddenly became detrimental. And he would say things like: ‘You know your friends aren’t laughing with you, they are laughing at you.’”

Loose Women aired a special episode today (Credit: ITV)

Denise reveals restaurant incident

But it was Denise’s partner’s jealousy that took things to a whole other level in their relationship. She recalled a time where he threw a table because she made eye contact with another man. Along with that, he also hated her spending time talking to her family.

Opening up about the experience, Denise admitted: “I was so close to my family. And so they very slowly start to bring you apart. But also the jealousy that comes, which is unbelievable, is because it’s your fault.”

Denise recalled the incident that took place in a restaurant, before she was famous. She said: “We were sat at a restaurant together and I was facing the door.

“The door opened and a couple walked in. We just made eye contact, so I smiled at them and they smiled at me. But he saw. He turned around and looked at the guy. I’m not going to tell you exactly what he said. But he went up to the table and said ‘You want to [bleep] my girlfriend?”

Looking back on why she didn’t leave the relationship, Denise admitted that she was “so desperate” to change him, and abusers have a way of “making you feel like you are the centre of their life”.

Denise is now happily married to painter Lincoln Townley. She was also married to actor Tim Healy, with whom she has remained friends, for 25 years.