Danniella Westbrook made her first public appearance after her latest facial reconstruction surgery on Monday, July 13, arriving at the Sellebrity Soccer charity football match in east London. She smiled for photographers, even while wearing large black-tinted sunglasses, as the recovery became visible in public for the first time.
Five or six more surgeries
Westbrook said she still needs “five or six” more surgeries to get her look back to how she wants it. She also said she has been through an upper vascular flap procedure and a lip augmentation, and earlier this month she shared recovery snaps showing the stitches on her upper lip after the first surgery.
Dubai for the next stage
The reconstruction has been underway for over a year, and Westbrook said she had flown to Dubai for a series of surgeries. That puts this appearance in the middle of a long run of operations, not at the end of it, which is why the public update carries more weight than a simple photo call.
Westbrook also said, “Since I got older the osteoporosis has set in on my bones,” and, “So on this side of my face, I don't have any bone at all.” She said she will have surgery again soon to have a metal cheekbone implanted in her face, which points to a process that is still rebuilding structure as much as appearance.
EastEnders and the recovery
For an ex-EastEnders star, the interest here is not nostalgia; it is the scale of the medical work still ahead. She is showing results now, but the next step is another operation, and the current look is only one checkpoint in a process that she says still has several rounds left.
That makes the real story the gap between the public reveal and the unfinished rebuild. Westbrook has put a face to the first stage of recovery, but the remaining surgeries will decide how close the finished result gets to the one she says she wants.
