Danniella Westbrook

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Danniella Westbrook
Born	November 5, 1973 (1973-11-05) (age 34) Walthamstow, London, England
Occupation	Character actor

Danniella Westbrook (born 5 November 1973) is a English actress and television presenter. She is known for being the original actress to play Samantha Mitchell in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, from 1990 to 2000. Away from EastEnders she has presented various shows, and was also a contestant on ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.

Westbrook struggled with a much publicised cocaine addiction throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, which caused the complete erosion of her nasal septum/colonna. She sought treatment and no longer uses drugs. She is married with two children, and released her autobiography, The Other Side of Nowhere, in 2006.

[edit] Early life

Westbrook was born in Walthamstow, East London, but grew up in Loughton, Essex.^[1] Her father was a cab driver, later a carpet contractor, while her mother was a shop assistant. Westbrook has commented "I came from a very loving family - you know, 2.4 children with a Volvo".^[1]

As a child, Westbrook had a keen interest in horse riding, but she has said that she always had aspirations to be famous. She joined the Sylvia Young Theatre School at the age of eight, attending Saturday classes, and at the age of 12 her parents allowed her to attend the school as a full-time student, where Denise Van Outen, Dani Behr and her future EastEnders co-star, Nicola Stapleton, were among her contemporaries.^[2][1]

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

During and directly after her stint at stage school, Westbrook appeared in several advertisements, a video for the band Queen and had a minor role in Grange Hill. At the age of eleven she appeared as an extra in BBC's EastEnders, roller skating across the soap's setting of Albert Square. At the time her local paper published her picture with the punchline "who knows, one day she may be the show's star!".^[3]

[edit] EastEnders

At the age of 16, Westbrook was put forward for a much bigger role in EastEnders, Sam Mitchell (the younger sister of Phil and Grant). Her audition was successful and she made her first appearance on the hit soap in 1990.^[1] During her initial stint as Sam Mitchell, Westbrook became a regular on the London party circuit and was rarely out of the British tabloids. Press interest escalated due to her off-screen and turbulent relationship with Brian Harvey, who was a member of British boy-band East 17. Despite featuring in some prominent storylines, rumours of Daniella's recreational drug-taking and poor and tardy attendance on set prompted the producers to ask her to leave the hit soap in 1993.^[4] In 1995, thinking that Westbrook had cleaned up her act, the producers at EastEnders asked her back to the soap a second time. However, Danniella was still regularly using drugs and in 1996 she was written out of the soap again.^[5]

In 1999, the EastEnders producers decided to reintroduce the character of Sam Mitchell back into the show. Although they initially considered recasting the role to another actress, and despite all her past problems, they decided to give Danniella another chance and she was asked back for a third time. This was largely down to former BBC executive Mal Young who said, "The producers phoned me and said 'We are bringing Sam Mitchell back and we'd like to recast'. I hadn't been through the past encounters with [Danniela Westbrook] and thought they were judging her slightly unfairly and believing a lot of stuff that was going on in the tabloids." The late Mike Reid who played Frank Butcher between 1988 and 2000 slammed Young's decision. Speaking in August 2005, he said "If I had been the Executive Producer, I would have gone 'No, I can't trust her,' and I wouldn't have had her back. So for Mal Young to bring her in again and do what he did with her, I was very surprised."

During her time away, Daniella's excessive use of cocaine had completely eroded away her nasal septum. In order to hide this from the audience, Danniella was only filmed in ways that would keep her septum hidden from view. In doing this, Danniella was able to keep her damaged septum a secret from both the viewers and the press. Yet in an episode filmed in 1999 the cameras managed to pick up on what the cast, crew and millions of viewers watching didn't. Eight months after her return, on the closed set of EastEnders, the truth was out. However, Daniella's drug taking only worsened and in 2000, she was asked to leave EastEnders for a third and final time.^[6] Since her departure, the character of Sam Mitchell has been recast and was played by Kim Medcalf from 2002 - 2005. After Kim Medcalf quit in 2005, a tabloid rumour suggested that Danniella would be reprising the role in her place, the rumour was, however, denied by the BBC.^[7]

[edit] Other work

A week after her initial exit from EastEnders, in 1993, Westbrook landed the part of 'Dawn' in Frank Stubbs Promotes. She also played a part in Dave Stewart's directional film debut, Entertaining Mr. Simpson. The film was shown at various film festivals around the world, including Cannes.

In 2003 Danniella was a contestant in the British ITV reality series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Despite being a popular candidate for winning, Danniella found the environment traumatic, saying that she missed her children and wasn't psychologically prepared for the hardship of jungle life. She quit the show before being voted off.^[8]

She recently co-presented Cosmetic Surgery Live alongside Vanessa Feltz, an apt platform for her as she is known to have had several breast enhancements under the supervison of Dr. James Frane. Danniella also presents a series of fitness DVDs. She has also appeared in the reality series I'm Famous and Frightened! and Most Haunted and in the television comedy sketch show Bo' Selecta. She is currently presenting 'Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns' with Derek Acorah on LIVINGtv. In April 2006 Danniella released an autobiography entitled 'The Other Side of Nowhere', which gives a graphic depiction of her struggles with cocaine.

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Addiction

Danniella famously appeared on chatshow 'The Priory' in 2001, where she appeared to be heavily under the influence of drugs.

Westbrook's struggle with cocaine addiction has been widely documented in the British press. She has confessed that she first tried the drug at the age of 14, in a nightclub. After winning her role in EastEnders at the age of 16, Westbrook was a regular on the London club scene, and her cocaine usage esculated. By the age of 21, she was spending £400 a day on cocaine. She has commented "I was always in clubs and everyone was doing coke and it was glamorous - except obviously, it wasn't at all. I was just very young, very stupid and very easily led...I think there should be someone at EastEnders to say to young people when they come in, 'Look, your life is about to change, you're going to be invited to things, and you'll be offered drugs.' Someone who can tell them what sort of people are about, and what sort of papers, and how quickly what you've worked for all those years can be gone."^[1]

In May 2000, Danniella was photographed at the British Soap Awards, where an image of her missing septum was given to a series of tabloid newspapers, unveiling her secret and highlighting her excessive drug abuse. Hounded by the press and with public concern at its peak, Danniella was checked into rehab and six months later, she appeared on the Channel 4 show 'The Priory' with the claim that she was clean and had been free from drugs for months. However, hosts Jamie Theakston and Zoe Ball struggled to get coherent answers from Danniella, who appeared to be heavily under the influence of drugs despite her claims of abstinence.^[9] Danniella has since been quoted as saying that the shocking image of her drug induced performance on 'The Priory' was the motivation she needed to prompt her to re-enter rehab in order to kick her drug habit, which she has now successfully done. Danniella has since undergone reconstructive surgery on her nose to replace her eroded septum.

Danniella has been painfully honest about her drug addiction, featuring in several documentaries, including an interview with British journalist Martin Bashir for the Tonight with Trevor McDonald show and Danniella Westbrook: My Nose and Me for Channel 4. Her motivation behind this was to deter people from using drugs and to show the effects that drugs can have. It has been reported that during the worst period of her addiction, she was using 6 grams of cocaine a day, and spending over £300 a day. She has estimated that she has spent over £250,000 on drugs and has admitted that during her lowest ebb she attempted suicide several times.^[10] Since Daniella's recovery many EastEnders cast members, including Martine McCutcheon, Mike Reid, Barbara Windsor and Sid Owen have stated that Daniella's abuse became so bad that they feared it would soon claim her life.^[11]

[edit] Relationships and family

During the early 1990s, Westbrook notably dated the pop singer, Brian Harvey, during which time Westbrook overdosed on pain killers in 1994, on a suicide bid. Westbrook and Harvey's "stormy" relationship ended in 1995,^[12] and Westbrook began dating Robert Fernandez, who was convicted of drugs possession two months after they met. In 1996 Westbrook gave birth to Kai, her son by Robert Fernandez.^[13] Westbrook has admitted to using 5g of cocaine every single day throughout her first pregnancy.^[14] In 1998, Westbrook was involved in a near fatal car accident, which left her with severe facial injuries, including a dislocated eye. She was flung through the car windscreen, but survived, and after corrective surgery, sustained no long-term or major disfigurement.^[15] Fernandez was driving the car, and it has been reported that he was travelling at at 85mph.^[16]

After splitting with Fernandez, Westbrook married her first husband, van driver Ben Morgan in 1998, after knowing him for just eight weeks. The couple went to live in Australia but the marriage did not last, ending in divorce nine months later. Westbrook's estranged husband and his mother subsequently sold stories to the tabloids about her well-publicised cocaine addiction.^[17]

She married her second husband, millionaire businessman Kevin Jenkins on 27 December 2001 and their daughter Jody B was born the following year. After appearing on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2003, Westbrook has admitted that she no longer wishes to be a 'celebrity'; recently commenting "I made a pact with Kevin I would do no more TV work that would take me away from home. These days, I live an ordinary life. I work occasionally, but I also do the school run and laundry and prepare my family's dinner".^[18] Westbrook now lives in Kent and is a self confessed chav^[19] happy to demonstrate this by wearing Burberry in public.^[20]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Daniella Westbrook at the Internet Movie Database