Former EastEnders actress Danniella Westbrook has revealed she has "got nothing left" and is "exhausted" as she prepares for a seventh surgical procedure that will use parts of her ribs to reconstruct her face. The 52-year-old television personality is on an 18-month journey to repair her face following years of drug abuse that resulted in a collapsed septum.
Speaking in her latest interview on At Home With Vanessa, a YouTube show hosted by broadcaster Vanessa Feltz, Westbrook opened up about the physical and mental toll of her ongoing operations. She disclosed that although she has completed six operations so far, she still requires at least four more surgeries to rebuild her facial structure.
Westbrook explained that she received confirmation of her next surgery date in October. "So that's when they redo, make this bit skinny and pull it up and they put the ribs in the side and stuff and everything to support it," she said, pointing to her nose during the broadcast.
Upcoming facial reconstruction surgery
Shocked by the description of the procedure, host Vanessa Feltz asked: "Bits from your ribs are going in the side of your nose. B****y hell. How many ops so far?" Westbrook replied: "I've had I think, six," adding that she has at least four more operations to go.
The actress explained that each procedure takes five or six hours under general anesthetic. "I trust my surgeon implicitly. I really do trust him. But I do feel like I'm 52," Westbrook said. "I put my body through enough and then putting your body through anesthetic and it's not short surgery. It's like five or six hours each time."
Westbrook expressed how taxing the healing process has been on her body. "And the recovery from that. I'm really feeling the recovery if I'm honest. I just feel absolutely exhausted," she said. "I feel like I've got nothing left. When I come around, I'm like, 'Please just let me sleep.' I've got nothing left."
Physical toll and recovery struggle
The former soap star admitted that after waking up from her most recent procedures, she considered stopping treatment altogether. "I'm at that stage now where I've come around from surgery with the last two and I've been like no more," she confessed. "This is just going to have to be how I look. I don't want to do it anymore."
Despite her exhaustion, Westbrook noted that stopping is not an option due to physical necessity. "But I'm still carrying on because I have to because it's respiratory I have to be able to breathe properly," she stated.
Asked by Feltz about her condition during the interview, Westbrook detailed her current physical state. "I've got all stitches in here and in my lips actually I can see under that nose there but I feel okay," she said.
Future operations and bone rebuilding
In addition to nasal reconstruction, Westbrook revealed that she will need a metal cheekbone implanted due to severe bone loss. "Since I got older the osteoporosis has set in on my bones. So on this side of my face, I don't have any bone at all," she explained.
She added that doctors are currently using cosmetic filler as a temporary measure. "So they've got to rebuild all my bones. At the moment it's filler, but they've really got to do a metal bone. It's got to be put in there," she said, noting that the metal cheekbone will connect further up where her bone is not corroding.
Westbrook's upcoming procedures follow a trip to Dubai in March, where she underwent extensive surgery at Gargash Hospital in the United Arab Emirates. That trip included a full face, neck and brow lift, alongside lip and nose reconstruction by surgeon Dr Parviz Sadigh, who has carried out previous operations on her face.
History of medical procedures and career
Following her procedures in Dubai, Westbrook shared her optimism about the progress. "I have three more nose operations to go. So we’re over half way there now. Facelift has really changed me and given me my confidence back," she said at the time.
Westbrook first achieved national prominence at the age of 16 when she was cast as Sam Mitchell in EastEnders, the BBC's long-running television soap opera set in the fictional East London borough of Walford.
Her television career was interrupted by heavy cocaine abuse, leading show producers to terminate her contract and write her character out of EastEnders in 1996. The prolonged drug use damaged her facial cartilage and caused a collapsed septum, resulting in her ongoing multi-stage facial reconstruction.
