{"id":358958,"date":"2025-12-21T03:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/358958\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T03:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:41:10","slug":"i-got-rid-of-all-my-mirrors-i-couldnt-look-at-myself-danniella-westbrook-reveals-500000-and-two-more-years-of-surgery-could-finally-repair-her-cocaine-ravaged-nose-and-even-lead-to-an-eastend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/358958\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I got rid of all my mirrors – I couldn’t look at myself’: Danniella Westbrook reveals \u00a3500,000 and two more years of surgery could finally repair her cocaine-ravaged nose – and even lead to an EastEnders comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

To this day, former EastEnders<\/a> star Danniella Westbrook<\/a> refuses to keep a mirror up in her house, unable to look at the face that was once her fortune.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a quarter of a century since a paparazzi snap at a red carpet event revealed that she\u2019d lost her septum, eaten away by cocaine addiction. In the years that followed, her face would further collapse as a result of her prodigious drug habit and related osteoporosis.<\/p>\n

Multiple reconstructive surgeries \u2013 including using cartilage from one of her own ribs \u2013 failed, leaving the star languishing in the shallows of showbusiness.<\/p>\n

Today however, another series of operations is set to restore Danniella\u2019s drug-ravaged looks and with them, she hopes, her screen career. Tellingly, the 52-year-old actress has also just launched a talent agency whose clients, she pledges, will not pay the price of fame as she herself has done for decades.<\/p>\n

A poster child of Noughties excess, Danniella has made mistakes but no one can say she hasn\u2019t lived with the consequences.<\/p>\n

\u2018I got rid of all my mirrors,\u2019 she confirms. \u2018I couldn\u2019t look at myself. That\u2019s how bad it got. The darkest part of this year was hitting a point where I said: \u201cEverybody is right, I\u2019m so ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I hated the way I looked and I couldn\u2019t breathe properly. People were trolling me, abusing me, telling me how ugly I was, saying I was still a dirty coke head.<\/p>\n

\u2018I told my family: \u201cI can\u2019t do this,\u201d but now I\u2019ve found a surgeon who has saved my life and my mental health. He is a miracle worker. I owe him so much.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Danniella <\/p>\n

Danniella Westbrook in 2000. The actress’s nose was severely damaged by her cocaine use<\/p>\n

\"Danniella <\/p>\n

Danniella during one of her many operations. She will fly to Dubai in the new year for another<\/p>\n

In the new year Danniella will fly to Dubai for the next major surgery. She will then have to undergo a further two or three more minor procedures, as well as a full \u00a345,000 neck and face lift. Her rehabilitation will take another two years, her surgeon Dr Parviz Sadigh has said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s non-negotiable, since she is still suffering the devastating legacy of the cocaine addiction that came with teenage superstardom.<\/p>\n

Danniella was just 16 when she burst onto British screens as Sam Mitchell, little sister to Phil and Grant Mitchell, in EastEnders in 1990.<\/p>\n

Watched by audiences of 15million, she swiftly became a household name and gossip column fixture. But, having been introduced to cocaine aged just 14, she quickly fell into dependence. She is said to have been snorting 3g of the drug a day, spending \u00a3250,000 on it \u2013 and a further \u00a3500,000 trying to rebuild her face.<\/p>\n

The grotesque pictures of the huge hole in her nose where her septum ought to have been were taken at the British Soap Awards in 2000. What should have been a triumphal night for Danniella, amid a parade of EastEnders stars, became a devastating denunciation of the young actress\u2019s party lifestyle. Even today, the images exert a shocking power.<\/p>\n

Speaking later about her darkest days, Danniella revealed she had been kidnapped and gang-raped by drug dealers and had begged to be sectioned after suicidal thoughts. She was so physically weakened that at one point she weighed just six and a half stone.<\/p>\n

Although she successfully kicked her drug habit several times, once managing 12 years of sobriety while living in Los Angeles, she fell off the wagon in 2014. It was 2021 when she announced she was finally drug-free, after attending a clinic in Mijas, Spain.<\/p>\n

While other female soap stars from her generation have gone on to forge stellar TV and movie careers \u2013 Sarah Lancashire, Suranne Jones, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Keegan and Anna Friel all began on British soaps such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Brookside \u2013 Danniella has seen many professional reversals because of her addiction.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The now 52-year-old played Samantha Mitchell in BBC soap opera EastEnders<\/p>\n

\"She <\/p>\n

She says she would return to the show if her character is killed off, to ‘finish’ what she ‘started’<\/p>\n

Her CV is filled with reality TV, and smaller presenting roles, with appearances on I\u2019m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Dancing On Ice and Celebrity Big Brother.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, filming what she hoped might be a comeback movie, ironically about county lines drugs gangs, she suffered respiratory difficulties on set. Rushed to hospital, Danniella spent three days on a breathing machine and her \u2018gangster granny\u2019 role was subsequently recast.<\/p>\n

Horrifyingly, doctors discovered three new holes in her mouth, two of which were the same diameter as a 5p coin, the result of earlier botched repair surgery back in 2016. \u2018They couldn\u2019t believe it when they opened me up,\u2019 she says ruefully.<\/p>\n

\u2018The top of my mouth had started to recede and it had two holes, which were constantly leaking and corroded. Everything I was eating and drinking was going through them.<\/p>\n

\u2018But the work on that went well, including a surgical lip revision for a cleft lip. My surgeon brought my top lip down and forward \u2013 those holes were pushing it back and curling my lip up.<\/p>\n

\u2018And, where there is no structure at the end of my nose, it was just pushing up and under. That is why I couldn\u2019t breathe, I was literally suffocating.\u2019<\/p>\n

She currently has 68 stitches in her mouth but is upbeat and focussing on this phase of her recovery, saying: \u2018You can\u2019t even tell!\u2019<\/p>\n

Two weeks on from the operation and the dressings have gone but her nose is still flat, far from its teenage shape.<\/p>\n

She is now making a documentary about her long surgery journey, working with a TV production company and the police to investigate why and how cocaine has caused such damage to her face.<\/p>\n

\u2018It will be good closure for me,\u2019 she admits, while pledging: \u2018I won\u2019t be going near any drugs.\u2019<\/p>\n

Danniella\u2019s other passion project is her new talent agency W.1 Elite, which has signed a stable of reality TV stars and influencers in readiness for a full launch early in the new year.<\/p>\n

She founded it believing her 32 years of experience in the public eye mean she\u2019s perfectly placed to promote and protect others.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s no care in management anymore, I wanted to change that,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

\u2018People are always asking me for advice about the industry so this is a natural progression for me. I don\u2019t think there is enough help available to people in this industry. I\u2019ve looked at all the things that were missing when I started, so there will be an accountant the clients can use and a therapist on call at all times.\u2019<\/p>\n

The actress poignantly adds: \u2018I lost my dad when he was 75 so I might only have 25 years left in me. I want to make every one of them count.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want a roster of clients who are credible and have longevity in the entertainment industry, and to leave a legacy for my kids. It is such a kick to start a business and watch it grow.\u2019<\/p>\n

Danniella is not currently in a relationship having split from her boxer boyfriend Chas Symonds in June. \u2018I\u2019m married to the business \u2013 that and focusing on myself,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

Despite the pair still being on good terms, she has battled severe depression and is taking anti-depressants.<\/p>\n

She says her family has kept her going. \u2018They have always been there, I was the one who wasn\u2019t present.<\/p>\n

\u2018I didn\u2019t care enough before. I walked around like that for years, I thought I was invincible when in fact I was sick.\u2019<\/p>\n

She particularly credits the death of her father Andrew in 2024 with \u2018pulling me back from the brink,\u2019 and is grateful for the compassion shown by her sister, who briefly became a kind of unofficial carer for her.<\/p>\n

She has also restored relations with her children. Danniella shares Kai, 28, with her former boyfriend, Robert Fernandez, and a daughter Jodie, 24, with her second husband, Kevin Jenkins. \u2018I enjoy a better relationship with them both now, rather than them worrying about me constantly,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

With this new-found emotional stability and the promise of professional renewal on the back of her forthcoming surgeries, Danniella is determined to help other people tackle their alcohol and drug addiction.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to help people who are on drugs, but I won\u2019t entertain people who are doing it in my friendship group. I\u2019m too busy living.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve been focusing on the documentary and showing what addiction can do to you. I\u2019m proof you can come out the other side and rebuild your life and career no matter how big or small, that there is a life after drugs. That\u2019s the message on my banner and I\u2019ll keep waving it, if it helps other people stay alive.\u2019<\/p>\n

Above all, she is looking forward to finally having her face rebuilt.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ll look like I used to look, like I should look. When my face is done, I will return,\u2019 she promises.<\/p>\n

So would she ever go back to EastEnders, the show which first made her a star?<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019d go back if they killed me off,\u2019 she says candidly. \u2018I would finish the character that I started.\u2019<\/p>\n

For now though her real priority is her recovery \u2013 and that includes rehanging all the mirrors in her home, long since hidden in her utility room.<\/p>\n

\u2018My mum said to me, \u201cCan we get your mirrors out now?\u201d and I replied: \u201cYeah, actually, we can. I feel great!\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To this day, former EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook refuses to keep a mirror up in her house, unable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,2093,154783,32109,39555,75,9112],"class_list":{"0":"post-358958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-danniella-westbrook","13":"tag-dubai","14":"tag-eastenders","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-tvshowbiz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}