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"EastEnders star David Witts was forced to defend his girlfriend live on stage at the National Television Awards last night when the &amp;quot;rude&amp;quot; audience started booing her.  The soap hunk thanked his partner while collecting the &amp;#039;Most Popular Newcomer&amp;#039; award for his portrayal of Joey Branning, prompting jealous jeers from those gathered in the O2 Arena.  David Witts with his girlfriend after learning of his &amp;#039;Most Popular Newcomer&amp;#039; award Clearly stunned by the crowd&amp;#039;s response, Witts broke off his acceptance speech to tell them: &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t boo! That&amp;#039;s rude. You can&amp;#039;t boo her, she is beautiful, look at her. She is far too good for me.&amp;quot;  David Witts reacts to the boos for his girlfriend Some Twitter users had even more extreme reactions to the news that Witts has a girlfriend, with one warning her: &amp;quot;I will find u and kidnap u.&amp;quot; However, most on the site were shocked by the negativity of the crowd, calling those who booed &amp;quot;psychopaths&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;vile&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;tragic&amp;quot;. Speaking to Digital Spy following his win, Witts revealed that his girlfriend had helped him prepare the speech in which she was booed. &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#039;t expect to win. I really didn&amp;#039;t,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;On my way here with my girlfriend, she said, &amp;#039;You really should make a list of some people to thank&amp;#039;, and I was like, &amp;#039;Oh, really?&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Witts previously admitted that his partner is not comfortable with his sex symbol status.   &amp;quot;She has got used to the on-screen kissing. She understands it is a job. But the attention outside the show is different,&amp;quot; he explained. &amp;quot;You have to accept that with this job, some kind of hype does come with it. As long as you don&amp;#039;t believe the hype and carry on as normal then you are fine.&amp;quot; Witts beat Emmerdale&amp;#039;s Liam Fox, Coronation Street&amp;#039;s Natalie Gumede and Hollyoaks actor Joseph Thompson to the &amp;#039;Most Popular Newcomer&amp;#039; award, which was voted for by the public. National Television Awards 2013: Winners:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/eastenders/news/a453481/eastenders-david-witts-upset-by-rude-girlfriend-boos-at-ntas/>