Former EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook reveals she returned to drugs after her partner left her earlier in 2016, but is on the road to recovery
Former EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook had a drugs relapse and overdosed after her partner walked out on her earlier this year during her battle with illness and depression.
But the actress, who has fought a high-profile battle with drug addiction, denied she had been taking cocaine again.
She explained that a plaster worn under her nose in recent days is down to contracting septicaemia due to issues with some dental work.
Danniella said she 'spiralled back down into a depression' following her break-up with George Arnold, being in hospital for the blood infection and being unable to work after a successful stint in Celebrity Big Brother in January.
The 43-year-old told ITV’s This Morning: “Yes, I did relapse, I thought my whole world was over when he walked out, because he just got up, it was like he’d never been there.”
She said: “I tried to overdose a lot when George walked out, but it just turns out he never had a girlfriend before me, so it all unravels and you know it was very difficult.”
Danniella said that she did not overdose on cocaine, adding that she 'took loads of tablets' when asked about her relapse by presenter Phillip Schofield.
She said: “I felt like I’d let everybody down. I came out of Big Brother, I couldn’t earn the money I wanted to earn, I couldn’t do the jobs that had been offered to me that I’d been waiting for for years.”
She was asked by Phillip whether she had considered her children being left without a mother had the overdose been successful.
She said: “When you relapse and you take drugs, you don’t see that.
“All you see is selfishness and a way out. So you either carry on taking more drugs and you get to that point where you’re so low on such a comedown, you’re like, ‘I just want to kill myself’.”
The TV star said she had left the Channel 5 reality programme at the start of this year feeling 'excited' about her prospects, but that she was blighted by issues with her dental work.
Danniella had to have her top teeth and dental implants removed because the septicaemia had spread through her mouth.
She revealed she has undergone several operations and spent weeks in hospital over the summer, and that she still has to have more surgery on her face.
Referring to the plaster under her nose, she said: “Obviously everybody is going to say it’s cocaine. And rightly so, that’s what I was known for for a very long time, they’re going say that.”
Danniella said she is feeling positive and is looking forward to some new job prospects after her bout of ill-health, relapse and break-up.
She said: “I’m looking forward to Christmas. It’s actually a positive time. I’ve just opened up a business in Liverpool with a good friend of mine, who has got a little salon up there, and we’ve got some great ventures coming up, and a TV show coming up out of it, which is good.”
Danniella said: “I’m concentrating on me right now: the recovery, the kids, and getting back to work and this new business.
“I’m taking every day as a blessing.”
