Danniella Westbrook stepped out in London on Friday to run errands, showing off the results of her latest facial reconstruction surgery as she prepares to go under the knife again. The former EastEnders actress, 52, is currently on a journey to repair her face after struggling with a collapsed septum following years of drug abuse.
Her next surgery, planned for October, will involve taking part of one of her ribs and placing it in her face to help reshape the area.
Westbrook's most recent operation, part of her ongoing multi-stage reconstructive process, took place in June. The results were visible as she stepped out for a solo outing near Bond Street in London on Friday.
For the outing, the actress, best known for playing Sam Mitchell in EastEnders, opted for a smart casual look. She wore a black blazer teamed with a black T-shirt, black cropped trousers and white trainers, and finished the outfit with a pair of navy headphones.
She carried a Gucci handbag but still had her hands full, clutching her phone, a bottle of water and a vape as she walked.
Six operations down, four more to go
Westbrook recently discussed the physical and mental toll of her surgeries in an interview on broadcaster Vanessa Feltz's YouTube show, At Home With Vanessa. She revealed she has already had six operations but will need four more.
She said she had reached the point where, after her last two procedures, she had told herself she wanted no more surgery. "I'm at that stage now where I come around from surgery with the last two and I've been like no more," she said.
Despite this, she told Feltz she was feeling okay and had just received a phone call confirming her next surgery date in October. "So that's when they redo, make this bit [points to her nose] skinny and pull it up and they put the ribs in the side and stuff and everything to support it," she explained.
A shocked Feltz responded: "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," confirming she has at least four more still to come.
Trusting her surgeon despite exhaustion
Westbrook said she trusts her surgeon implicitly but is increasingly aware of what the procedures are taking out of her body at 52. "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," she said.
She said the recovery afterwards has become harder to bear. "And the recovery from that. I'm really feeling the recovery if I'm honest. I just feel absolutely exhausted," she said.
Westbrook described waking from surgery desperate only to sleep. "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," she said. She added that after her last two operations she reached a point where she no longer wanted to continue: "This is just going to have to be how I look. I don't want to do it anymore."
Even so, she said she is pressing on because the surgery is needed for respiratory reasons. "I'm still carrying on because I have to because it's respiratory I have to be able to breathe properly," she said.
An 18-month journey to rebuild her face
Westbrook is on an 18-month journey to repair her face after her septum collapsed as a result of years of drug abuse. EastEnders, the long-running BBC soap opera in which she starred as Sam Mitchell, is set around a fictional square in London's East End and has been broadcast since 1985.
Asked by Feltz how she was feeling in the moment as they spoke, Westbrook pointed to the stitches she was still carrying from her most recent procedure. "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.
