Broadcaster Vanessa Feltz has opened up about her separation from former pop star partner Ben Ofoedu as she starred in the latest series of Celebs Go Dating.  

In the first episode, which aired on Sunday night, the 61-year-old told viewers it was the first time she will have been on a first date in 17 years. 

In February, the presenter and former JC columnist announced her split from Ofoedu on her Instagram to an outpouring of support and sympathy. 

She said that the relationship with the Phats & Small singer, 51, was over after allegations emerged that he had cheated on her. 

Addressing her recent breakup on the dating show Feltz said: “Once the trust in a relationship has been thoroughly nuked, you really can’t get it back again even if you try and I did try.” 

She added: “I never wanted single life, is the truth, I don’t like it and I fear it. 

“I want someone who is worth investing your time – and ultimately your badly broken heart – in.” 

Feltz is starring in the series alongside other celebrities including Love Island’s Adam Collard, Made In Chelsea’s Mark Francis and Kate Moss’s half-sister Lottie Moss. 

The presenter has been using her social media to give fans an insight into her new life in the dating world.  

Feltz, who is used to helping others with their relationship and family dilemmas as an agony aunt on This Morning, has been supported by her family and colleagues publicly since the split. 

Speaking to Josie Gibson and Andi Peters on This Morning, Feltz said:  

“When you meet someone, it can be really easy, it can be really easy… that’s bliss. It’s just a question of a numbers game… [you’ve got to] keep on somehow.” 

When she announced her split on Instagram she said she was not “going to let this defeat me… I am very, very grateful to be alive and I want to carry on feeling that way,I want to celebrate and find fun and laughter anywhere I can. 

“I know it is not going to be easy but I am absolutely determined to do it.” 

Feltz and Ofoedu first met in 2005 after her divorce from surgeon Michael Kurer.  

The pair were introduced through a mutual celebrity friend - Boyzone band member Keith Duffy. 

Mr Ofoedu was once a permanent fixture alongside Feltz at Jewish communal events.  

In a 2016 interview with the JC, Ofoedu said: “When people spend time with us they say it makes complete sense. I love her. She is smart, funny and exactly my type of woman." 

At the time of her divorce from Kurer, Ms Feltz wrote a piece for the JC in which she said she had been hung out to dry by the community when her marriage collapsed. 

"People who shlepped in the shiva chairs when your mother died," she wrote, "now vault across M&S aisles to avoid you." 

She said the divorce "propelled me and expelled me from the community. I felt extremely ill-at-ease and cast into exile. It wasn't that I rejected the North West London way of life. Not at all. I felt that it rejected me."