Denise Welch has provided an update after it was claimed she’d vanished in a mysterious hot air balloon incident after reports popped off online.
The Loose Women star took to Instagram over the weekend to repost a puzzling article that claimed she’d disappeared with four other passengers over the Pyrenees.
It claimed the 66-year-old had been travelling in a hot air balloon from the UK to France before it ‘dropped off radar, lost all communication, sparking an international search effort.’
On Monday morning, fresh from the hoax, Denise was immediately asked about the story by the rest of the Loose Women panel, featuring Jane Moore, Sue Cleaver, and Brenda Edwards.
Jane joked: ‘We’re lucky that you’re here, Densy! You had the nation in a little bit of a panic [over the weekend].’
Denise responded: ‘I was sat on the sofa on Saturday watching a movie when a journalist friend of mine said “Oh god, Densy, please tell me this isn’t true!” before sharing the story with her.
‘[Soon after] the memes started. I was in the balloon with Mariah Carey, [apparently] Lady Gaga was involved… then it started spreading to the US where nobody knows me.’
Living in the US is Denise’s son Matty Healy – the frontman of the pop rock band The 1975. Denise joked that Matty (and her husband Lincoln Townley) presumably didn’t care about the hoax all that much.
‘[Matty and Lincoln] both apparently woke up to see, respectively, their mother and their wife was missing in a hot air balloon over the Pyrenees – and both went back to sleep.’
The audience let out a big laugh as Jane remarked that the Loose Women panel were ‘glad to have [her] back’ from her reported expedition over the Spanish-French mountain range.
Not letting the false report burst her bubble over the weekend, Denise wrote alongside multiple crying laughing emojis: ‘Thank goodness they found me!!! WTAF??!!!’
She also reposted various satirical social media posts, including reports Lady Gaga had been enlisted in the hunt to find her and Sir Michael Caine had broken his leg after catching her from the sky.
The ITV star even shared a clip of herself strutting with her son The 1975 star Matt Healy’s fiancée Gabbriette with the caption: ‘When you’ve been missing for hours above France in a balloon.’
The fake news article claimed Denise had embarked on a ‘scenic journey across the English Channel’ before disappearing in ‘French airspace near Calais.’
It also falsely quoted a ‘Kent Police Chief Inspector’ who said: ‘We lost contact around 11.30 am. The balloon’s transponder stopped pinging and there’s been no word since. It’s utterly baffling.’
Quite.
This is not the first time Denise has been forced to shut down false stories about herself.
In 2023, she had to state she was alive and well after she was victim of a death hoax circulating on X.
On the social media site, Denise shared alongside three embarrassed emojis: ‘I’m alive and well and about to watch the jungle. Thanks for your concern.’
She later made light of the bizarre rumours and shared a picture of her transformation into Queen Elizabeth for Diana: The Musical on X, captioning the post: ‘And we’re off!! Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated #dianathemusical 👑👑👑.’
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Elsewhere, Denise has proved her ultimate hun status by previously freely admitting to The Guardian that pooing herself in New York while wearing cream trousers was her most embarrassing moment.
She recalled: ‘We were going to see my son Matty and his band, The 1975, at Madison Square Garden, and I was walking through the streets, enjoying the sunshine, pretending I was in some kind of video – throwing my hat into the New York sky like Mary Tyler Moore.
‘I saw a couple of people turn and look at me. Now, although I’m not famous in New York, whenever Matty’s there I do get recognised as his mum, so I’m smiling and waving at them.
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‘I went back to the hotel room and bent over to get something out of the suitcase, and my husband said: “Do you realise you’ve shat yourself?”‘
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