DANNIELLA Westbook has confessed she thought she’d die during life-changing surgery to rebuild her face.
The 49-year-old actress underwent her final procedure in Turkey this week in an effort to undo damage caused by her infamous addiction to cocaine.
But, despite the operation already giving former EastEnders star Danniella a new lease of life, there was part of her who feared she wouldn’t wake up.
Danniella shared the first look at her new face – as well as her gruesome surgery photos – exclusively with The Sun.
She said: “I was very fearful. My mum and my son Kai were on the phone constantly – I wrote up a will before I left and my son is the executor of that.
“But luckily I’m still here and I’ve come through the other side. Someone is looking over me.
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"For the facial reconstruction I had a surgical thread lift where they put 1200 threads into my face. Then I had liposuction to remove fat from my body and into my cheeks and lips and to make my face more symmetrical. They also used it to align my nose. I had fat grafting on my chin and my jawline etched."
Danniella has also shared the first look at her new face – as well as her gruesome surgery photos – exclusively with The Sun.
Unsurprisingly after such invasive surgery – which is her fifth and hopefully final operation – Danniella was in terrible pain and left shocked by her appearance when she came round from the anaesthetic.
“I looked like I’d gone 10 rounds with Tyson Fury,” she said. “But the swelling has actually gone down really quickly. I’m already happy with the results.”
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10It’s been a long time coming for Danniella who has been planning this surgery for years. But due to her past drug addiction battle she had to get it just right to avoid failing in her recovery because the drugs used as painkillers following surgery can cause addicts to relapse.
It’s understandable that Danniella is mindful of relapsing. Her surgery comes after she was left with crumbling bones in her nose and a collapsed jaw and cheekbones due to years of cocaine addiction.
“I can’t be under anaesthetic for a very long time because I can’t have very strong opiates,” she explained. “Because of my recovery, if I'd had something like that in my system my body could’ve gone into toxic shock syndrome.”
In fact because of her previous struggles with addiction Danniella has been forced to take the bare minimum when it comes to pain relief following the operation.
She said: “I literally take my antibiotic, ibuprofen and paracetamol – everything else I have is holistic. I use cream and arnica tablets. I can’t risk having anything with codeine in it because it’s cocaine based.”
While Danniella is reluctant to reveal just how much her extensive surgeries have cost she insists they weren’t a freebie from the surgeon off the back of her fame and insists it has cost her thousands of pounds.
“I had at least 200 surgeons from all over the world – Turkey, India, California – offering to do the surgery for free,” she said. “But it was important for me to find the right person and I paid for it all myself. This isn’t about Instagram posts, this is my life. I’ve had a lot done for free before and it’s gone wrong.”
Danniella previously revealed that one operation in particular went so wrong that she was left with osteoporosis in 2018. After having botched dental work Danniella even contracted septicemia.
She said: “The bone didn’t close around the dental implants which led to the blood getting into the bone through the gums.
“And it just died in there, gave me septicaemia which set off the bone disease, that started rotting away on the bone and it’s all down to that.”
Despite all the work on her face so far, it’s not over yet though as Danniella will have to return to Turkey in nine months for the surgeon to see if any tweaks need to be made.
And she admitted that without the reconstructive surgery her face would’ve aged fast – despite not even being 50 yet.
She said: “With my osteoporosis my face would have sunken a lot faster than other people my age and my bones would’ve degenerated quicker.”
But the star is adamant that, after her follow up, she won’t be going under the knife again anytime soon.
“I might have to get my boobs done because one of them has ruptured,” she said. “But I won’t be getting Boxox, fillers or having my lips done. I’m embracing entering my 50s.”
Danniella has been relentlessly trolled for years after devastating photos emerged in 2000 showing her with a collapsed septum but she insists she won’t let cruel trolls get her down.
“I actually feel sorry for them,” Danniella said. “You have to wonder what’s gone on in their lives for them to make comments like that on social media.
“I try not to read the negative comments – that’s what the block button is for,” she said. “But I was on an Instagram live with my son a couple of months ago and this one person kept coming on and writing to Kai ‘you and your sister are crack heads like your mother’ and they were threatening sexual violence against my daughter.”
But Danniella claimed she has suffered something even darker than that – with a stalker being jailed recently after following her children.
Danniella said: “She used to follow them in the street and take photos of them. She’d make Instagram pages claiming to be me and say things like ‘mummy loves to surprise you’. It was when Kai was 19 and Jody was 15.
“That freaked me out. She’d come to my house. When the police raided her house they found she’d created more than 6,000 fake social media accounts in my name. She got three and a half years in prison.”
But despite all of that and with her brand new face, Danniella is doing her best to look to the future and is focused on becoming the best version of herself possible – with her addiction recovery always at the forefront of her mind.
She said: “I’ve instructed the help of Sober Success. They put people like me in the right place and on the right track, my recovery must come first.
“I go to meetings once or twice a day, my son and my manager drug test me and I test myself.
“We’ll keep them all going forward for TV companies because of my track record. it’s about taking responsibility and being accountable.”
Danniella hopes to be ready to go back to work in three months and is itching to get back to her first love – acting.
She was left outraged last year when EastEnders recast her character Sam Mitchell with actress Kim Medcalf and it seems Danniella wasn’t the only one, however she’s got big plans in the pipeline to capitalise on her new face.
“I’m already getting DMs from people asking if EastEnders will bring me back now I’ve had the surgery,” Danniella said. “I doubt they will because Kim does a great job but it’s not the only show on TV. I’ve been offered a Netflix series – two seasons – and I’m shooting a movie soon over in Ireland.”
Danniella has taken part in a host of reality shows in the past, including Celebrity Big Brother, Dancing on Ice and I’m a Celebrity.
However she’s keen to remind people that she’s first and foremost an actress. She said: “I’ve got more strings to my bow than being on reality TV screaming at people.
“Most celebrities these days only have reality TV, they don’t have anything else to lend to the entertainment industry.”
There’s also another avenue of earning Danniella is keen to get back to. She’s one of the stars who make money from posting racy content on OnlyFans, however she’s been unable to for a while due to an identity issue.
She said: “I haven’t been able to post for 18 months because I let my passport run out and I needed it to re-verify myself on OnlyFans. I only got a new one in October and I’ve finally updated it on there.
“I’m a creative director at Social Icon which is a UK version of OnlyFans and that company does really well.
“But I have made a lot of money on OnlyFans, mainly from just chatting to my fans. I do get asked for some weird videos but I have to tell them no!”
And it’s not just her professional comeback Danniella is gearing up for as she’s busy planning her wedding to jailbird fiance David, who is set to be released from prison later this year.
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“It’s just waiting for him to come home now,” she said. “We’re very much together and wedding plans are moving forward.
“Actually just today I went and put a deposit down on a wedding dress. We’ll be getting married abroad – I can’t say much more than right now but I just can’t wait to marry him.”
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