Former EastEnders star Daniella Westbrook believes playing the character Sam Mitchell in the hit soap saved her from child sex abuse.
Budding actress Danniella arrived in Walford in 1990 aged just 16, tasked with the tough task of playing Phil and Grant Mitchell’s feisty younger sister.
But she left the hit BBC soap after just three years and, when she returned for an ill-fated second spell, found herself sensationally sacked for missing filming and unreliability.
Daniella, now 47, later admitted blowing £100,000 on a cocaine addiction over a forgettable two-year period that caused her endless problems.
Eight years ago the troubled actress revealed she had been sexually abused as a child and in 2016 spoke candidly about the painful memories of being raped, aged just seven-years-old, on Channel 5 show In Therapy.
Speaking to the show’s shrink Mandy Saligari, she admitted: “I was sexually abused as a child.
"I was seven years old, it was within the workplace and that continued for a lot of my life.
"At seven I was like a fourteen-year-old.”
She now credits EastEnders with having saved her – and the abuse finally stopping.
And speaking exclusively in the first episode of Girl Talk, a new YouTube show hosted by best-selling author and celebrity agent Melanie Blake, Danniella said producers were spot on to fire her – and without the show she might have seen her life spiral wildly out of control.
“Going in to work at the BBC saved my life, because the abuse stopped, which was great,” Danniella revealed.
“I know a lot of people that I went to school with that were abused alongside me that ended up on drugs and in prostitution in brothels, because they weren’t as lucky as me to get into a good job in a stable institution like the BBC and have proper management.”
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Danniella also revealed her horrible experiences had forced the BBC to introduce a new series of safeguarding measures to help young actors cope with the pressures of fame.
“They [the BBC] put a peer system in place last time I was back and Jake Wood (Max Branning) was my peer,” added Danniella.
“They really did try to look after every cast member. They learnt a lot from me being there.
“If they [the BBC] had kept me I probably wouldn’t be here today. I 100% think that. I’d have just been getting money, turning up and making it ok for me to use.
“I deserved my sackings, because I was a liability to that programme. I was a terrible cocaine addict when I was young and I did abuse the platform I was on. I just couldn’t be trusted.”
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