DANNIELLA CONFIRMS THOSE I don’t care what people say, I know I’m a chavvy bitch but I’ve beaten my demons and I look forward to baby No3
“It doesn’t matter what happens in the future when this little one arrives,” says the actress, finally confirming rumours of her pregnancy in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mirror.
“I could win 12 Oscars and I would still be known as the cokehead girl off Eastenders…”
Honest as that may be, the 43-yearold star is well aware that many will struggle to feel much sympathy.
Behind her is a car crash of a life, blighted by drug abuse, failed relationships and very public meltdowns. So why should the doubters believe she is changing her ways now?
“I’ll tell you why,” she says. “I went into rehab for nine weeks earlier this year and got to the root of my problems. I suffered abuse as a child. It led to me starting on drugs at 15.
“If you get everything dealt with and put away as far back as you can, you stand more of a chance.
“I’m a cocaine addict. If I’m going to find coke, I’m gonna climb a mountain to find it. But I can’t worry about that. My life is different now. My demons have been put to bed. Now I can move forward.”
LOST
Many will be sceptical, but the early signs look good. And so does she.
We are in Majorca, the Spanish island she has made her home, and gone is the troubled wild child figure who dominated headlines for years.
She looks a picture of glowing maternal health. And by her side, stands the man she credits with transforming her life. Her romance with hospitality industry entrepreneur Alan Thomason, 34, raised eyebrows when it emerged they’d got engaged after only eight weeks.
But Danniella says: “Alan is a hundred, million per cent the reason for my current happiness. I’ve been lost a lot in my life. Now I’m centred.
“People can say what they like. Alan is not a user. It took him five days to realise I even work in TV. He looks after me.” The star, already mum to Kai, 21, and Jody, 15, With her fiance Alan from previous relationships, revealed last year on the Channel 5 programme In Therapy that she was raped at the age of seven. She later said she regretted doing so and claimed the show offered her no help. But checking herself into rehab in March was key to addressing the legacy of that ordeal. “It was the stuff I hadn’t dealt with that got me to the point of understanding why I used drugs at 15,” she explained. “I thought I was having a breakdown. I’d relapsed and started using again. I went in for nine-and-a-half weeks. You can go to rehab as many times as you want and clean up, but unless you clear up the crux of the problem you’ll always revert back.”
The stress she was under was also a result of an online stalking ordeal.
“This troll was sending me stuff for two years. She’d taken pictures through my window and of my kids coming out of school. It made me really ill. Police have now tracked her. I will take it all the way to court.”
In rehab, Danniella tackled the fallout from a miscarriage she suffered with previous love George Arnold, 25.
They split in March. She also dealt with a troubled romance with Tom Richards in 2014. Danniella says it helped her find out “what was missing” – and that is what she’s found in Alan.
“He’s a man for a start,” she says. “He’s open, honest and loyal.” The pair smile as they recount how they met earlier this year in Benidorm while Danniella was walking a pal’s dog.
She says: “He walked past and started stroking the dog. Then he looked up. I saw his eyes and was like ‘Wow’.”
HONEST
Alan cuts in: “It was like a spark, so natural. I didn’t know she was famous. I liked her as an individual.”
Danniella, who made a brief return to Eastenders as Sam Mitchell last year, adds: “I was honest with him about everything. He doesn’t give a monkey’s about my past.”
Laughing about Alan’s proposal, she says: “He bought me a box of Haribo rings. I thought we were joking, but then he was like, ‘No I’m deadly serious’. Then he got down on one knee and pulled a proper ring out.”
They learned she was expecting days later. “We hadn’t been trying. But he was over the moon and so was I.”
Danniella admits a fear of “jinxing” her pregnancy made her wary of confirming it, after past miscarriages.
“Since I had my daughter, I have not been able to carry,” she says. “I was taking drugs while pregnant with Jody and I went into treatment at three months with her. I’m a different person now.”
She has given up alcohol during her pregnancy and insists she is not afraid of relapsing – even though she and