BBC EastEnders’ Denise Fox star Diane Parish’s love split before finding love with ‘dream man’
BBC EastEnders’ Diane Parish is the name on everyone's lips as her character, Denise Fox, has a big decision to make in the soap's live episode to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the show, which airs tonight, Thursday, February 20.. Although, she won't be making the decision, the general public will be. Voters will get the power to decide whether Denise Fox (Diane Parish) reunites with estranged husband Jack (Scott Maslen) or picks secret lover Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) in an interactive first for the soap.
Whilst her love life is in turmoil on the long-running soap opera, Diane, aged 54, prefers to keep her personal life private. When she's not in the public eye, Diane leads a peaceful family life, devoted to her two daughters, Kaya and Kenya.
Speaking frankly about the possibility of adding to her family, she told The Mirror: "No way! I've shut up shop. I'm done. I'm no spring chicken, you know. I feel very fortunate for having my lovely little girls. We're a very happy family."
READ MORE: Iconic EastEnders character makes shock return after 30 years away from Albert Square
Diane Parish, who hails from Tottenham, London, continues to embrace her North London roots. She has featured in numerous hit TV shows, but she's most celebrated for her role as the beloved Denise Fox in EastEnders, having appeared in over 1500 episodes of the iconic BBC soap. Denise Fox has certainly experienced her fair share of drama, with a string of unsuccessful relationships and three children to her name, not to mention being part of the notorious Six who were involved in Keanu's demise.
Away from the spotlight, Diane's personal life has seen its fair share of highs and lows. She is a mother to two children, whom she shares with her ex-husband Sebastian Parish, an IT specialist.
Diane, who's known for keeping her private life under wraps, surprisingly shared some personal details during a 2018 chat on Loose Women about her split from Sebastian. She told the panelists, "The last time I was here, I sort of got a bit ambushed with [questions about marriage] and, for the sake of my children, I didn't want to go into the break up with me and their father, and I'm usually quite a private person."
Diane went on to discuss how she's been safeguarding her daughters' privacy while navigating life post-separation: "I just wanted to protect my daughters by not discussing that, and I've been single quite a long time, I've been having fun, but I have now met the man of my dreams."
Parish then found love again with Gerry Zucarello, whom she met in 2017. Even though they announced their engagement back in 2018, it somehow slipped under the radar until two years later. This belated buzz over their engagement news tickled Diane and Gerry, as an insider revealed to OK!
The insider said: "Diane and Gerry are just laughing about it really he's been meaning to update his profile for months and now when he does, people didn't realise the date and they got a huge spate of 'congratulations! '"
However, they were a bit taken aback by the sudden media frenzy as they've been engaged for a couple of years now. They're still very much happily betrothed and found the recent news coverage somewhat puzzling – but that's the power of social media!
Gerry, who is employed by car giant Porsche and has three children from a previous relationship, reportedly popped the question to Diane during the Covid-19 lockdown, according to The Sun.
However, they decided to keep their joyful news hush-hush.
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