The Masked Singer's Denise van Outen was quickly rumbled by 'EastEnders' star Samantha Womack

Denise van Outen was finally unmasked as Fox on The Masked Singer at the weekend, but it wouldn’t have come as a surprise to her Babes in the Wood co-star Samantha Womack who had her rumbled.

It came as the EastEnders actor watched the show alongside All Saints' Natalie Appleton, who appears on the upcoming episode of White Wine Question Time along with Donna Air and host Kate Thornton.

"Samantha [Womack] stayed over at my house and we were lying in bed," Appleton says. "I said to Sam 'the show is amazing, I love it, it's like guilty pleasure'. So I put it on, we were very hungover and she's listening to it and she went 'that's Denise' and I thought it was Sam Fox, I had no idea."

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She continues: "I thought it couldn't be Sam Fox because she was the Fox but I thought 'Denise? I don't know'. But then she did a song from Les Mis and Sam said 'it's Denise'.

"So when we were texting and Denise was saying 'I'm away in blah blah blah...it's your birthday and I'm not around' I thought ‘it's her, it's definitely her.’"

Their hunches were correct, as van Outen left the show in the double-unmasking which saw CeeLo Green exposed as Monster.

The secret stars of the ITV show keep their involvement in the programme tightly under wraps, and van Outen didn't even tell her nine-year-old daughter Betsy.

After she was unveiled as Fox on Saturday night, the presenter later posted footage of her watching the unmasking alongside her daughter, who was visibly shocked by the revelation.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Thursday morning, van Outen confirmed Betsy had "no idea" she was taking part and that she also didn't let her partner Eddie Boxshall in on the secret either.

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The final of the ITV programme is set to air this Saturday as the last three contestants, Queen Bee, Octopus and Hedgehog, go up against each other one last time.

The full episode of White Wine Question Time featuring Natalie Appleton and Donna Air will be available on Friday 21 February on Spotify and iTunes.