Danniella Westbrook ‘fell down Eastender stairs’ and took ‘two ounces of coke a week’

Danniella Westbrook has been incredibly open about her previous struggles with drug abuse, but admitted she started taking drugs whilst on the set of the BBC soap

Danniella Westbrook has spoken candidly about how her substance abuse led her to falling down the stairs on the set of EastEnders. She revealed the incident forced her off the show.

Former actress Danniella, 52, has been open about her struggles with drugs − including how her drug use has left her needing facial reconstruction surgery. However, in a recent interview Danniella admitted just how bad her situation was.

Speaking on Terry Stone’s Connection podcast, the Celebrity Big Brother star bravely spoke out on just how much cocaine she was taking at the height of her career. She went on to say that she was ultimately fired from the BBC show after she returned from falling off the wagon.

The model and actress explained that by the time she had reached the height of her fame on EastEnders, she was already doing large amounts of cocaine. She estimated that at that point, she was taking around two ounces of the substance a week.

But she admitted that she was fearing that people would find out about her addiction and tried not to raise suspicion. “I was flushing it down the loo,” she explained, “I was paranoid.”

She went on to say that the toll the drugs took on Danniella was drastic, admitting she was just over 6 stone when she was taken into rehab. The damage was clear to see as she said it was possible to count the number of ribs and vertebrae she had in her back.

This left Terry stunned, as he worked out that Danniella had done a total of 42 grams of cocaine every week. She explained the worst of her substance abuse came when she was away from EastEnders, though she admitted she was also taking drugs while contracted.

She then admitted that during the second time she came back to the show in 2009, she was taking cocaine on the set of the show. Danniella then candidly revealed the BBC forced her to leave the show once they found out.

“They had to get rid of me in the end, because I passed out once,” she recalled. “I had a cocaine convulsion, and I fell from the top of the stairs in the Vic, I just passed clean out.”

Eventually, she would be discovered by EastEnders co-star Ross Kemp, who was playing Grant Mitchell at the time. He eventually signalled for help, to which bosses at the soap were allegedly unsympathetic to her.

“He caught me at the bottom,” she said. “The producer came over to the box and then said, ‘Pick her up and make her work.'”

The BBC gave no comment when reached out to by the Daily Star.

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