Danniella Westbrook
Danniella Westbrook was given a lifeline by the show after getting into financial difficulty. Getty

She said that she felt "blessed" when Hollyoaks offered her a lifeline in her wake of her bankruptcy , but it looks like Danniella Westbrook will not be reprising her role as scheming Trudy Ryan after all.

The embattled actress, who rose to fame playing Peggy Mitchell's loudmouth daughter Sam Mitchell in EastEnders, has been axed from the Channel 4 soap - without filming a single scene.

A Hollyoaks spokesperson confirmed that the 41-year-old star will not appear in upcoming episodes after she "breached her contract".

"We can confirm that Danniella won't be filming with us as planned because she breached her contract," the rep said.

But Westbrook, who originally played former jailbird Trudy for 16 episodes before leaving the show in 2013, said that she decided against a comeback for fear of coming into contact with her cagefighter former lover Tom Richards.

"Danniella decided not to go ahead with her time at Hollyoaks down to her ex and the fact that he [Richards] has a training camp next door to where she was staying," her manager said in a statement.

"Danniella did not feel she would be safe in Liverpool."

However, Richards says he has no plans to train in Liverpool for his upcoming bouts.

The turnaround comes after a source said that the struggling star viewed the new gig as a fresh start.

"It's a huge thing for Danniella. She has been through a lot of financial hardship over recent times," the insider told the Sun in April. "Now she's going to be earning a good wage back on TV like the old days. Hopefully, this will really help her turn a corner.

She also tweeted her excitement telling her 131K followers: "I'm happy to confirm I will be returning to @Hollyoaks very soon. Blessed 2 b back with an amazing team cast and crew #ShesBack."

The mother-of-two, whose nasal septum famously collapsed as a result of her cocaine addiction, has been relying on hand-outs after falling on hard times.

In December, Westbrook admitted that 2014 had had been the "worst year" of her life and revealed that she was forced to move her family into sheltered accommodation. She was pictured outside the Jobcentre as she struggled to make ends meet

By March, she had started pulling pints at The Bill Nicholson pub near Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane stadium "to make her feel useful."

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