Actress Danniella Westbrook has revealed she was abused by evil Jimmy Savile.
The EastEnders legend was targeted by a string of predators when she was aged between nine and 14. Now, the actor has revealed the disgraced presenter was one of her assailants.
Speaking in a new interview, she explained the vile TV presenter “was one of them.” Danniella said she kept it secret for years because she was terrified reliving her ordeal would make her want to end her life.
She also told in the YouTube interview how she came face to face with paedo Savile years later – and she was so sickened she refused to go near him. She recalled: “I went to do a show in Belfast on a chat show and they tried to sit me right next to Jimmy Savile.
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
“He was like, ‘Come here, Danniella, you know me, sit next to me’. And I said, ‘I wouldn’t sit next to you if I was dying’.” When former BBC DJ Savile – who abused as many as 450 people – was finally exposed in 2012, it was painful for Danniella.
The actress, famed for playing Sam Mitchell in the BBC soap, feared her ordeal at the hands of the Jim’ll Fix It perv would be made public. She said she was approached by Operation Yewtree police investigating Savile’s crimes, but could not stand the thought of the truth coming out.
Danniella, 50, said: “I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die because I thought of all of the shame. I thought everything would come out about me and what he’s put me through and different things he’s done.
(Image: Getty Images)
“I thought it would make me kill myself. So that’s how bad it was for me. I thought, ‘I can’t go through reliving it all again’.”
Danniella has previously criticised BBC bosses over the way they handled the Savile scandal. It left her so frustrated she admitted in 2022 she had stopped paying her TV licence fee.
She said: “I don’t really tend to associate or agree with a channel that advocates a person like Jimmy Savile over young people and actors and people coming up through the ranks that suffered at the hands of this abuser.
(Image: SWNS.com)
“I can’t condone it, I’m sorry.” Savile was exposed as one of Britain’s most prolific child sexual abusers a year after his death in 2011.
See the full interview on The Lewis Nicholls Show, which is available to watch on YouTube.
If you or somebody you know has been affected by this story, contact Victim Support for free, confidential advice on 08 08 16 89 111 or visit their website, here.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
