ON THE TWINCREASE
Older mothers and fertility treatments fuel huge rise
THE number of twins born in Europe soared by 61% in 30 years, according to research.
Fertility treatments, older motherhood and the pill are fuelling the rise, say scientists.
Around 1.6 million twins arrive worldwide every year – one in every 42 infants.
The rate has risen a third since the 1980s – from nine to 12 per 1,000 deliveries. In Europe it rose 61% from nine to 14.5 and was up by 71% in the United States and 32% in Asia.
A major cause is the growth in medical assistance – such as ovarian stimulation, IVF and artificial insemination.
Delaying having children is another factor as the likelihood of twins rises with a mum’s age.
The study published in journal Human Reproduction is the first comprehensive global analysis of its kind.
It was based on data on twinning rates from 165 countries between 2010 to 2015 – 99% of the world’s population and comparing it with 1980 to 1985.
Professor Christiaan Monden, of the University of Oxford, said: “This is likely an all-time high.”
SOAP legend Danniella Westbrook has revealed she was once so broke she begged for a job at Aldi, but was turned down for being too famous.
The actress, 47, who found stardom as Sam Mitchell in EastEnders, struggled to get work after being sacked from the show because of her cocaine habit.
She said: “When you’re in a low place you go home and sob. It makes you not want to be an actor sometimes, but by then the whole country knows you and you can’t just go and get a job in Asda.
“Trust me, I’ve tried. When I was on the breadline I tried to get a job at Aldi and people were like, ‘We can’t really give you a job. You’ll be a liability because people will be coming in taking pictures’.
“I said people would get bored and that I had to earn money. But they said they couldn’t give me a job.”
Danniella was 16 when she arrived in Albert Square in 1990 to play Phil and Grant Mitchell’s feisty younger sister.
She left after three years to take on other roles, but was invited back two years later. In 1996, she was sacked after bosses tired of her poor attendance and unreliability. She later admitted blowing £100,000 on cocaine in just two years.
The BBC1 soap gave her another chance, but in 2000 she was axed a second time. On the first episode of Girl Talk, a YouTube show hosted by Melanie
Blake, celebrity agent and author of new novel Ruthless Women, Danniella said the show was right to fire her as the decision saved her life.
She said: “I deserved my sackings. I was a liability to that programme. I was a terrible cocaine addict when I was young and I did abuse the platform I was on. I just couldn’t be trusted. It wasn’t a decision that they really had to sit down and make. It was a necessity, I had to go.
“In my early days I was using all the time. If they had kept me I probably wouldn’t be here today. I 100% think that. Because I’d have just been getting
money, turning up and making it OK for me to use.”
Danniella was famously photographed at the 2000 British Soap Awards with her septum destroyed by her cocaine abuse.
She checked into rehab, but relapsed in 2014 after 14 years, before finally getting clean. Danniella recently
ROMANCE With East 17 star Brian Harvey in 1994 announced she had left Essex and moved to Wales to focus on her mental health following an online spat with Brian Harvey, 46, the East 17 singer she dated in the 1990s.
She said: “I’m going through it now on social media, with an ex of mine who is trying to bring me down.
“I went to the police yesterday to make a statement and get a restraining order because he’s bringing up stuff from my past which is very damaging.”
Danniella, who has a son Kai, 24, and daughter Jody, 18, revealed in 2013 that she had been sexually abused as a child.
She now credits EastEnders with saving her. She said: “Going in to work at the BBC saved my life because the abuse stopped, which was great.
“I know a lot of people that I went to school with that were abused alongside me that ended up on drugs and in prostitution in brothels because they weren’t as lucky as me to get into a good job.”
■ Watch the first episode of Girl Talk at https://youtu.be/-vifv4tgA7o. To order a copy of Ruthless Women go to: https:// amzn.to/3cK6uQq
The whole country knows you, and you can’t just get a job at Asda
DANNIELLA WESTBROOK FORMER EASTENDERS ACTRESS