Joey Essex's sister Frankie attacked in jealous night club brawl

Former reality TV star Frankie Essex was attacked in a nightclub after a group of girls targeted her because of her The Only Way Is Essex fame.

The 26-year-old beauty has revealed how she was attacked by a gang of screaming girls in the toilets of Club 195 in Essex on Saturday, as she enjoyed a night out with boyfriend John Lyons, cousin and TOWIE star Chloe Sims and her boyfriend Elliott Wright.

She explained: "I was in the VIP bar having a really good night. Chloe left and my boyfriend went for a smoke outside.

"I nipped to the loo. I even left my bag and everything on the table because the club is normally so safe.

"There are just two cubicles down a corridor, so no one was around to see what happened. I had sat down and slid the bolt lock when suddenly these girls started banging on the door...

"Then the door came crashing in and three or four girls just threw themselves at me ... They were punching, scratching, pulling ... I think I might have got kicked in the head because I've got a really bad bruise on the top of it."

Frankie - who is Joey Essex's older sister - was then saved by one of the nightclub bouncers who helped her up before kicking her attackers out, and it wasn't until John told her he'd heard the girls boasting about "doing Frankie Essex" that she realised they must have recognised her from her time on the ITV 2 reality series.

She told The Sun: "I couldn't understand why the girls had set on me. I didn't know them at all.

"When John told me what he heard I realised they must have targeted me because of TOWIE.

"I can't believe it - how someone could do that just because of a TV show, out of jealousy and spite."