Ahead of her impending return to the famous soap opera, ‘EastEnders’ actress Danniella Westbrook has revealed the amount of “grief” she gets on social media for dating a younger man.

The 42 year old London-born actress is to resume her role as Sam Mitchell on the BBC soap, the part which brought her to fame at the start of her career. Appearing on ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’ on Monday (April 25th), she spoke about the abuse she gets online for the 18 year age difference between herself and her 24 year old boyfriend, George Arnold, but that she isn’t “worried about it”.

Danniella WestbrookDanniella Westbrook entering the 'CBB' house in January 2016

The couple began dating in November 2015 and things have gotten serious quite quickly, with the former ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ star Westbrook telling the show’s hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid that they planned to get married before the end of the year, and try for a baby.

Westbrook, already a mother of two, said a lot of the stick she gets is because Arnold bears a passing resemblance to her 19 year old son Kai, who is just five years younger than her new lover. Asked whether it bothers her, she replied: “Yeah, if you read it and you're bothered by it but I'm too busy at home with George to be worried about it.”

Just perfect @georgearnold92 ??????

A photo posted by Danni ?? (@danniellawestbrook) on

“I'm really happy with George. He may be 24 but he is 44 in his mind. He's completely different,” she revealed. “I get so much grief on Instagram, people say 'he looks like your son' because my son is 19. A woman last night on Instagram said 'I would never go out with a boy the same age as my son' and I said ‘That's okay darling because nobody is asking you to, so don't worry about it.’ I'm quite happy.”

She added that when the roles are reversed in celebrity relationships – for instance, if an older guy dates a much younger woman – then the same kind of comments are never made.

Meanwhile, back on topic, she’s due to resume her role in the Mitchell clan on ‘EastEnders’ for the first time in six years. “I'm super excited to go back, I'm super excited to have the boys back together, Ross and Steve, and obviously Barbara, to have the four of us back together, the original Mitchells, to get the four of us back together will be great.”

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