Danniella Westbrook regrets speaking about being sexually abused as a child on Channel 5’s In Therapy and claims she ‘got no help’ from the show
Actress tweeted that she finds it hard to have the 'whole country' know about her troubled past
DANNIELLA Westbrook regrets speaking about being sexually abused as a child during her appearance on In Therapy.
When the troubled actress appeared on the Channel 5 show last year, she revealed she had been raped when she was just seven-years-old.
Last night her episode of In Therapy was aired on freeview channel 5*, prompting fans to flood her Twitter timeline with messages of support.
However, she told them that the show had done her “more harm than good”, and hinted that she hadn’t had any further therapy to help her handle her painful revelations.
She told one fan: “Thank you so so much . I’ve had such great support on twitter about it. But doing the actual show did me more harm than good tbh.#therapy.”
To another who commented that therapy is ‘mentally draining’ she said: “It most certainly is.. part of me wishes I never did it as I got no help at all and now the whole country knows my childhood story of abuse.”
The show, which aired last June, was the first time the mum of two spoke about her painful past.
Speaking to the show’s shrink Mandy Saligari, she said: “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.
“There were certain things going on with me that shouldn’t have been.
“I was betrayed by lots of people – for me, I’ve been the keeper of people’s secrets for a long time and I don’t want to do that any more.”
Danniella’s tragic past sparked her addiction to cocaine, a drug that would later ruin her looks and almost derail her career.
Talking about her decision to go public after all these years, she said: “I decided to stop being the keeper of peoples secrets and strip it back to where the problem first begun for me – long before addiction.
“Addiction was just something that came in to play as I grew up into a young woman. I started to meet boys and everything else and it went back to my abuse as a child and that was my way of coping.
“I never wanted to go there. I thought if I scratched the surface I would never work in this industry again.”
Elaborating further on how keeping this quiet had affected her, she said: “I was completely emotionally numb to all relationships.
“Even in my marriage I’ve never actually loved or felt anything. I was numb privately and publicly.
“It wasn’t until I met [boyfriend] George and I started this process…
“I feel love for my children but I’ve never felt love for a man that way.
“I was always paranoid about them staying at other people’s houses, other people bathing them as children…people always thought i was funny about it.”
Asked if she now wanted to see those responsible brought to justice, she said no.
“I’m going to leave it where it is. I was contacted by Yewtree but I don’t want to go down that road.
“To anybody who is watching this and has been through something similar, it’s so surprising how many people get in touch. It’s ok to speak up. It not only helps you, it helps other people.”
A Channel 5 spokesperson said “The care and support of all of our contributors featured in the series In Therapy is of the utmost importance.
“All contributors were offered further support after the filming process.”
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