Ben Haenow secretly messaging former EastEnders actress Cheryl Fergison

With his good looks and cheeky charm, Ben Haenow must have had women throwing themselves at him even before he won The X Factor.

But since he rose to fame on the show, one famous lady has taken an interest in him – he’s been exchanging secret messages with former EastEnders actress Cheryl Fergison.

Before you going on the hunt for Ben’s wrist to slap, it’s all very innocent as Ben has a long-term girlfriend, Jessica Jones, and Cheryl just wanted to chat to him about singing.

Cheryl, who played Heather Trott in the BBC soap, followed Ben on Twitter and sent him a few private messages.

The X Factor champ told the Daily Mirror: “Course I followed her back, she’s a legend.

“We’ve had a couple of DMs. Apparently she’s a singer as well so maybe a little collaboration…”

Even with all this clandestine messaging, Ben is likely to have found plenty of time to rekindle his romance with girlfriend Jessica after admitting their love life suffered while he was in the X Factor house.

He told The Sun: “You’re not allowed people to come and see you in the X Factor house. It is literally a case of no visitors.

“It was tough, our love life suffered. Occasionally we’d get a free weekend to meet up and enjoy ourselves.”

Well, you've got plenty of time to make up for it now...

GALLERY: Loads of beautiful pictures of Ben Haenow