Denise Welch's family flutter on Big Brother win

Jan 29 2012 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

DENISE Welch’s family are in the money . . . after backing the star to win Celebrity Big Brother.

The Waterloo Road star stormed to victory in a nail-biting finish to the reality series on Friday night in London, where her dad Vin was waiting to give his delighted daughter a huge hug.

And Vin, 74, revealed the night was a double celebration because both he and Denise’s hubby Tim Healy won tidy sums of cash after having a flutter on the Geordie star winning.

“We’re all proud of her, and we had quite a night after her win – I knew she would do it from the very beginning,” said Vin, who travelled to London from Ebchester, County Durham, to see his girl after the final.

“I know she would win and I’ve got a few hundred pounds out of it, I had a nice little flutter.

“I put a bet on quite soon after she went in – I only had £40 on me at the time, but I got odds of 5/1 so made £200.

“And Tim won even more. He put on a few hundred pound so has £1,500 to collect.”

Tim, who was watching from home as he looked after their son Louis, added: “I knew she’d win – and it’s my 60th birthday.”

The popular actress, a regular on Loose Women, beamed with joy as her name was read out as the winner of the Channel 5 reality show, beating bookies’ favourite X Factor reject Frankie Cocozza.

Denise, 53, hit the headlines several times during her three weeks on the programme after getting tipsy on a few occasions, and her rollercoaster time saw her row endlessly with Reservoir Dogs actor Michael Madsen, and put up with a spat with Playboy models and twins Kristina and Karissa Shannon.

Friday was the first time she was shown footage of herself baring all in the hot tub – an incident which made many national newspapers – and she covered her face in embarrassment and stared at the screen mouth agape as the film was played back to her.