The gospel according to Danniella 'hole in her nose' Westbrook: Celebrity and fame are fake idols, I want to open a church



Back in control: Danniella Westbrook has been sober for ten years

Eyes closed and swaying to the music, former EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook raises her arms toward the ceiling and joins the congregation in euphoric cries of 'Praise the Lord!', and 'Praise Jesus!'.

It is Thursday night in Orange County, California – an upmarket community known for its sprawling beach-front mansions, designer shops and starring role in the hit TV show The OC, rather than for its houses of worship.

But here in The Sanctuary Church, evangelical preacher Pastor Jay Haizlip, a former skateboard star and convicted former crack cocaine addict, rises to a crescendo. 'I've seen hell,' he proclaims. 'I'd rather be dead than be without God!'

The 200-strong congregation surges towards the pulpit with a roar of approval. Westbrook, standing in the seventh row, yells with abandon: 'Jesus is my saviour!' As a bucket is passed around she writes a cheque and thrusts it in.

It is an incongruous place to find an Essex-born former soap actress whose all-consuming cocaine addiction became public knowledge in May 2000 when a photograph in The Mail on Sunday revealed a gaping hole where two nostrils should have been – the septum separating them had been destroyed by the drug.

These days, Danniella, 37, claims to be a reformed woman. Her drug-ravaged nose has long since been restored thanks to £20,000 of plastic surgery.



And since relocating to California last year with her husband of ten years, Kevin Jenkins, their nine-year-old daughter Jodie and, from a previous relationship, her son Kai, 14, she says she has 'found God'.

Addiction: The cocaine damage to Danniella's nose was obvious in 2000

In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Danniella admits she spent more than £250,000 on her cocaine habit while enjoying 'all the excesses that success in Britain offered'.

'But this is the new me,' she says proudly. 'I am happy in the House of the Lord. Fame and celebrity are false idols. Too many people today worship at the alter of celebrity but there is a spiritual vacuum inside them. That hole can only be filled by God.

'Fame and money mean nothing without a solid spiritual foundation. I know because I had everything – and it meant nothing. I realise some people will be shocked by how much my life has changed, but I've never been more serious about anything in my life. The most important thing in my life now is family and God.

Child star: Danniella Westbrook thinks she experienced success too young

'I truly believe God has saved my life and I want to bring the message back to England and open a church there. The whole point about this church is that it is fun. There is no reason why religion has to be boring. I believe there is a gap in the UK and we can fill that gap.'

Setting up her own church would be a remarkable turnaround for the woman who once epitomised the worst excesses of tabloid celebrity.



The daughter of a London taxi driver, Danniella was just 15 when she landed the plum role of Sam Mitchell, younger sister of the notorious Phil and Grant, on EastEnders.

It propelled her into a life of endless parties.



Her short-lived relationships were the stuff of tabloid headlines – she dated East 17 pop singer Brian Harvey and later married a man she had known for only eight weeks. Her fuel of choice was cocaine.

Danniella explains: 'I had too much, too soon. To suddenly be a household name and earn God knows how much makes you different from your friends, so I ended up going out with the West End crowd.



Yes, I was gullible and took drugs – but it was my choice. There's no one else to blame.'

Her rampaging drug habit caused EastEnders producers to ask her to leave the show three times – only to take her back when ratings dipped. But her addiction continued to spiral out of control.



She admitted using five grams of cocaine every day while pregnant with son Kai, who was born in 1996.

In action: Danniella, who played Sam Mitchell, was asked to leave the show three times because of her drug use

She was finally shocked into kicking the habit in 2001 at the Meadows rehabilitation clinic in Arizona when she was three months pregnant with her daughter Jodie and given just three weeks to live.

'I freaked out and thought, “I don't want to die,” ' she said. 'That was it for me. I am an addictive personality. I make my mind up fast about things.'

Perhaps, then, it is no real surprise that she should be so comprehensively 'saved' within weeks of first attending the Sanctuary Church last summer.

Celebrity: Danniella Westbrook, who was on the ITV show, now counts the Bible as her favourite book

Certainly the Sanctuary is no conventional place of worship. Pastor Haizlip founded the church three years ago and proudly boasts that Katy Perry's parents are regular worshippers, as is Brian Welch, the former lead guitarist of US rock group Korn.

Slick and peppering his conversation with proclamations of 'God's grace' and 'thanks be to God', he recounts his own story with the well-rehearsed air of a man who has told it many times before:

'I can relate to Danniella's story,' he tells me. 'I appeared to have a dream life on the covers of magazines and in music videos, but behind the hype things were worse than awful.

LA move: Danniella Westbrook with her husband Kevin Jenkins and their children in 2004 -the pair both say they have been reborn

'I got turned on to marijuana, then coke and then crack cocaine. I was existing from one fix to another. I ended up getting arrested for drugs and was sentenced to two years. I spent six months locked up.

'I found God one night when I was at a point of torment. I had all this cocaine and I thought somebody was at my back door, trying to get in.

'I took a butcher's knife and had already determined I was going to ram it into whoever was standing there. The scary thing is if one of my neighbours had been out there, I'd have killed them.

'I just snapped. I sat on the edge of my bed and started crying. I looked to the ceiling and said, “God, if you're real, why won't you help me?” '

He says the experience was 'an epiphany' as 'God surged through me'. He returned to skid row but instead of buying crack he began preaching the word of God.

The 47-year-old is, however, reluctant to explain how, as a former junkie, he could afford to buy the land and building for a reported £2.5 million.

Speaking from the bungalow near the church he shares with his wife and their three children, he shrugs and says: 'At the beginning we literally existed from week-to-week but we always managed to pay our bills.

'The church started in a strip mall and eventually God miraculously provided this church building. People give donations, they are generous. It has all the structure a church legally needs to have and should have.'

'It is all very LA,' said a source familiar with the group. 'I'm not saying they are bad people but I would say that this is a town where there are a lot of wealthy, vulnerable people looking for the next quick fix.



Young love: Danniella Westbrook with former partner Nick Jacobs -her relationships made tabloid headlines

This town attracts all sorts of people looking to make the most of that and, of course, make a buck or two pandering to the emotional and spiritual needs of people who don't have a moral or spiritual compass.'

Yet Westbrook insists she is not being lured into the latest fad. 'I have been clean and sober for ten years,' she says. 'My husband and I have been coming to LA for a while but it was only last year that we moved here full-time.

'I thank Pastor Jay for leading me to the Lord. I shall be forever thankful. His preaching and the church has changed my life.

Pastor life: Jay Haizlip was a crack addict before his religious epiphany

'These days I lead a quiet life,' she says. 'I'm a normal Essex girl and I love the life in LA. It is a great place to bring up children. I love the sunshine. It is impossible to be depressed when the sun is shining. There is no negativity here. You can be who you want to be and do what you want to do and no one criticises you.'

But Danniella's showbusiness instinct for what sells has not left her. After revealing what she calls her 'Born Again-ness' on Twitter ('I just started tweeting about it and the response was phenomenal,' she giggles) she says she was 'inundated' with media requests.

In a phone call to The Mail on Sunday she asks for money for her story, saying: 'I know I can make money from this. Any money I make from this is going to the church.

'The church does great things, like help drug-addicted children from Mexico.'

Meanwhile, it remains unclear exactly how Danniella and Kevin Jenkins, a recovering alcoholic, make ends meet. Kevin is usually described as a 'self-made millionaire' although reports suggest he left Britain under something of a cloud after his courier company Premier Despatch went into administration. It was later sold to rivals Addison Lee.

On his Facebook page, Kevin lists his favourite books as 'the Bible and Bible' (sic) and says he likes Christian music. His favourite activities are 'Church and boxing'.

For her part, Danniella's Facebook page says her favourite books are 'The Holy Bible, the Bible and Bible'. Her favourite activities are 'God and Church' and, in a nod to her former life, her favourite sport is listed as 'shopping'.

The couple were reported to have placed their £1.75 million home in Kent on the market last year, so it could be that they are living off the proceeds of that sale.

Modest: Danniella and Kevin are renting this £400,000 bungalow in Huntington Beach

Outside their modest 1,800 sq ft bungalow just a short drive from the church, Jenkins declined to answer questions, saying: 'We've given our lives to God now. That's all I want to say.'

Publicly available records show that the house was last sold in November 2007 for £400,000, but it is thought the couple are renting it.



Pastor Jay is equally confused about how the couple support themselves. He said: 'I have no idea how they make their living.



They appear to have money but how they got it is a mystery to me. He told me he owned a huge corporation in London that had lots of employees.'

Wild days are over: Danniella Westbrook says her party days are behind her

The Sanctuary's 'children's pastor', Jeremy Hollstrom, said: 'Danniella told me this is a new start for them. No one knows she is a famous actress and they can lead a peaceful life here.

'Kevin told me he sold his business in England. He goes back and forth. He surfs a bit and goes out with the guys. The whole family does mixed martial arts together.'

Despite her assurances that she is now enjoying a 'simplified, God-driven life', Danniella seems reluctant to put her previous life behind her completely.

Last Wednesday she and Pastor Jay's tall, blonde wife Christy travelled from Orange County into the heart of Hollywood as VIP guests of Sharon Osbourne at a taping of America's Got Talent on which Mail on Sunday columnist Piers Morgan appears as a judge.

Danniella posted pictures of herself and Christy backstage with Osbourne on her Twitter page – which has been inundated with messages of support from America's Bible Belt – and told friends at the Thursday night church service how much she and the pastor's wife had enjoyed their 'Hollywood adventure'.

For a girl who spent her formative years as a tabloid celebrity, it is clear that she remains somewhat torn between her old and new life.

Meanwhile, Danniella insists: 'I don't know where this will lead me but I know I am on the right path.

'Nowadays I get up in the morning at the same time as I used to go to bed. There has been talk about a reality show but it's early days.