Danny Dyer needed counselling after suffering a family trauma when he was younger.
His mother Christina has revealed the ‘EastEnders’ star was just nine-years-old when the family found out Danny’s father Tony had been cheating with a secret lover.
Recalling the moment she had to tell the children about the affair, she said: "It was an awful time. I sat the kids down and talked to them and explained the situation.
"Tony wasn’t bothered and Kayleigh was too young to realise but Danny kind of withdrew. He’s always been very sensitive."
Christina, now 59, went to talk to Danny’s headmistress, who recommended a counsellor.
She added: "I went and saw his headmistress and she said, ‘I know a really good counsellor’. Danny wasn’t really up for it but I said, ‘Let’s try it and see how it goes’. Off he would go and he’d come outside and he wouldn’t tell me what they’d talked about.
"Later he told me he got him to play with dolls and stuff. I also gave him a lot of cuddles to reassure him that mummy is constant – that I’m not going anywhere."
And whilst it is all "water under the bridge" now, Christina believes it has had an effect on who Danny, 37 – who is now close to his father – is today.
She told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "I’m not saying Danny hasn’t been affected by it…
"He wasn’t very academic and he tends to say that he would have gone into crime. The worst time was having to pick him up from the nick when he was 16 because he’d been caught with some weed."
Danny Dyer’s childhood counselling sessions
