Jeremy Kyle's doing "celebrity specials" naaah - because he's on a par with Piers Morgan... And no one encapsulates the term "celebrity special" like Danniella Westbrook. Especially when she comes across with nuggets like "I asked people to leave the delivery room after I'd given birth so I could have a line."
Digital Spy reports: "The former coke addict cried as she revealed she did the drug before giving birth to her son Kai (now nearly 16) - and just ten minutes after he was born… She also admitted to using up to five grams a day during her pregnancy - and said that her son once found her on the floor during a frequent cocaine convulsion. The 39-year-old said: 'I was in a terrible state. My 3-year-old son was trying to put a Mars bar in my mouth, trying to make me come round. No-one could help me. I used to do coke off the back of a Disney DVD that my kids watched'."
Of taking cocaine during her pregnancy, she added: "I could have killed my son and my daughter. I tried for years to make it up to them, then I realised I just had to be a mum and love them. The only thing I can do for them is stay sober. At one point, I asked social services to take Kai away from me, because I needed help. It took a lot for me. I feel ashamed a lot of the time; whatever I do, however well I do, I still feel shame for being a drug addict."
So how did she wind up in that state? She got hooked when she was 14: "I had cocaine before my first drink or cigarette, aged 14. I was in a bar where I shouldn't have been and a 17-year-old boy was there. It was full of yuppies and stockbrokers. He rolled up a 50 pound note and told me it wouldn't hurt me. I really liked him so I said yes."
And unsurprisingly, EastEnders facilitated her: "Ross (Kemp) and Steve (McFadden) sat me down and told me everything would change once I started EastEnders and to be careful, but I didn't listen. And they were right… One time I collapsed down the stairs of the Queen Vic on set and Ross had to carry me off to an ambulance. I feel so embarrassed like I let everyone down." And when her septum gave way: "It had been like that for seven months. EastEnders used to shoot me from a different camera angle so they couldn't see it."
OK, on the one hand, hats off for openly discussing her issues. But on the other hand, fellow coke addicts don't exactly need to hear that some mothers can get away with doing five grams a day during pregnancy and their kids are "fine."