Daniella Westbrook In Therapy. On now C5

[SoleBizzz]

Anybody watching?

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

I don't think many people do tbh?

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Random question mark!

[2yummymummy2]

I don't see the reason to lie either but then like Kerry katona, she makes money from tv and magazine deals so this will be bringing in money for her

I don't see why she would go public but not have them prosecuted. If she was abused and she is keeping his name secret then he's free to continue abusing others.

She said she would never let her daughter stay over at anyone's house but she's spent most of her life on drugs or in rehab with no clue who is looking after her kids or what was going on with her daughter so that can't be true

Just something a bit off. I hope she wouldn't lie about it though

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

How do you know who was looking after her children while she was in rehab?

It's also not her responsibility to stop the abusers abusing other people,she might not feel strong enough to have it all out in the open .

I'm not her greatest fan by any stretch of the imagination but that's an awful lot of assumption about someone you see on the telly.

[2yummymummy2]

She's talked about it in the past that she would go on binges for days and be gone while the kids were home alone

This was when she was clean and had turned her life around one other time but she didn't seem to be sober on tv lately

I do think she is a bit weird dating those young men, it's all just generally a bit weird, both her behaviour and the things she says

If it's not her job to stop the people who abused her then whose is it? No one else
can testify for her in court, she's the only one who can't stop it happening to someone else which would be the decent thing to do

[2yummymummy2]

And if she won't talk to the police then what was the point in making it public? except for the fact she's making money out of it and in tv/magazines again

She could of had the therapy privately and dealt with it but never made it public knowledge

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

It's not the responsibility of the abused. All well and dandy if someone wants to but if not then it's perfectly understandable.

I didn't realise she left her children at home on their own. Just shows how awful addiction is if you have to prioritise drugs over your children.

[2yummymummy2]

It's also because she mentioned on another tv show that it was someone in the bbc

I suppose it isn't their responsibility and yeah their choice if they don't want to take it further

but if it's a real person he shouldnt be on tv or working in it. John Leslie was named and lost his job and ulrika didn't deny that it wasnt him so she could do something similar

Leak the abusers name via someone else or on Twitter

[SpongeBobJudgeyPants]

I'm quite uncomfortable with the idea of people not believing she was abused tbh. Very rarely do people make this stuff up.

[Just5minswithDacre]

"We believe you" applies to survivors of child abuse, right?

[DawnMumsnet]

We've had a few reports about this thread and just wanted to stop by with a link to our We Believe You Campaign - please take a look.

This ongoing Mumsnet campaign has two simple aims: first, to shine a spotlight on the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in women's lives; then, to pull apart the many myths surrounding rape and abuse, which make so many women feel that they will not be believed if they report this crime. To all those women, we say: we believe you.

Please bear this in mind when posting.

Many thanks

[bruffin]

I share the same surname and lived close by where she used to live ( although didnt realise how close at the time) i had a phoene line which we didnt use and got some very dodgy phonecalls asking for Daniella. I had to report the caller to the police after a week of daily calls.

[Chupachupslips]

I'm going to stick my neck out here!

I feel sorry for her. She is extremely self distructive and that's come from deep self loathing. She probally has had too much therapy and no one now could ever reach in and help as her issues are way to deep.

The talking about bring abused and not wanting to go further with them is completly normal. It's almost as if she is actually desensitised to it herself now.

[Philoslothy]

I am so pleased that MN have stepped into this thread. Accusations that she is making up the abuse are vile. Do we only believe abuse victims who act in a nice manner. Sexual abuse victim acts in an angry, destructive and not particulate likeable manner is hardly shock horror news. She behaves in exactly the manner that somebody traumatised by abuse would act.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

She does Phil. It's really sad to see someone so self destructive.

[TealLove]

She does look totally traumatised.
I feel deeply sad for her.

[LadyStarkOfWinterfell]

Victims often don't present like yo thing they might or 'should'
DW seems very likely to have been abused to me - child actor, probably exploited/exposed to powerful older people, drug addiction at a young age, it all adds up imo

[EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard]

I saw it because it came on after Big Brother and I'd seen Daniella on that in the past, but I felt uncomfortable watching. She definitely strikes me as someone who was used, abused and exploited from a tender age and who grew up in the public eye not knowing how to make good choices.

Just looking at her eyes in some of those sessions, she didn't look right. Rightly or wrongly, from the look of her and her reactions, I drew the conclusion that she'd either been drinking, or had taken something.

Essentially I didn't feel that it was right to make a programme where the subject is paid as a job, to undergo filmed therapy. It felt cheap to me and exploitative. I won't be watching any more.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

She said she is bi polar, her meds for that might make her appear that she's taken something.

[EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard]

Maybe, but surely by now her meds would be helping? when I said the look of her I meant her whole appearance including body language. She was aggressive as well as fearful and defensive and possibly untruthful too (as to why she was late)

[YellowShockedFace]

I believe her. I just looked on YouTube and saw her interview on This Morning. She said no one would believe her as she was a drug addict and deserved it. That's sad. Nobody deserves it.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

The therapist explained why aggression and defensiveness are extremely common.

I have a relative with bi polar and needs to be heavily medicated, they knock her for six, someone's she slurs her words and is spacey. It's not a case of taking your meds and feeling better sometimes.

[EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard]

Yes I'm familiar with the side effects of medication which can seem like drunkeness and I didn't think it was like that at all. I saw the explanation from the therapist as well, which I think was in the part where she was talking about the camera crew's explanation of the lateness being quite different from DW's.

Anyhow I didn't particularly want to go down that route and I am fully aware it was an edited programme. My point was that she looked and sounded in a bad place and I didn't feel that taking on therapy as a paid job was in her best interests really. What further support she may have had after filming stopped we don't know and it may have been useful for her, but it felt too intrusive for someone who's so clearly vulnerable, so I'll leave it there.

[thatdarncat]

I believe her 100%.

She looks traumatised, exhausted and unwell, not to mention haunted.

I'm so glad Mumsnet stepped in earlier. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but when you look back at all the other murky stuff that has gone on in recent years, it's no wonder victims kept quiet for so long. No one believes them or the survivor of abuse thinks they won't be believed. Well Danniella, I believe you.

[Moistly]

I've always felt sad for Danniella Westbrook. I've read about how she started going off the rails in her Eastenders days and was subsequently dismissed. I've always thought that was where the abuse happened.
I also feel sad for Brian Harvey in the same way. Those two were a couple years back and I saw them together more recently protesting Brians utility bill at Downing Street
Drug issues for the pair of them for so many years. So sad.