Danniella Westbrook

Danniella Westbrook

Danniella Westbrook says her faith in Jesus is helping her overcome her relapse into cocaine use.

The former 'EastEnders' star confessed last weekend she had started using the drug again, first taking it in April after an argument her now ex-boyfriend Tom Richards.

Danniella is now in America attending support group meetings to ensure she gets clean and her Christian faith and the love of her fellow church goers is helping her beat her addiction.

Being interviewed from the US on 'This Morning', Danniella said: "I knew as soon as the story broke, I knew I needed to come back here and needed to be with my church and be in recovery here and get myself well. I first got clean 12 years ago in the States after doing a programme for three months. And I landed here Saturday night, my best friend, who is my pastor's wife, picked me up from the airport and I was in church on Sunday morning, and I'll be back tomorrow night."

Revealing details of the help she is getting to presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, she added: "I do a lot of meetings here (in the US), I know a lot of people here with a lot of clean time - that have been clean for 30 years - and are very good friends of mine. It's a place where recovery is celebrated and you can speak freely. There are therapists and it works for me here... and you don't feel like you're the only one in the world. The whole time on my relapse I knew what I was doing was wrong."

The 40-year-old actress admits one of the worst things about her descent back into cocaine use has been the effect it has had on her family, in particular her brother and mother.

Danniellla - who has two children - believes a combination of problems she has suffered recently in her life, in particular the break-up of her marriage to businessman Kevin Jenkins in January, and her confession that was gang-raped by drug dealers at the height of cocaine addiction years ago are responsible for her falling off the wagon.

An emotional Danielle said: "I told my mum three weeks ago at her house, but I haven't spoken to her since ... I haven't heard from her at all. My younger brother emailed me this morning and I do know I've broken his heart.

"I think losing my marriage was a big deal for me and my home, being robbed and then being left with nothing from my marriage and then having to move my kids into a bedsit this year was really difficult... there's been a lot of stuff like that and talking about the rape I thought would be a good thing, but I've really not dealt with it very well."