JUST days ago, Martine McCutcheon was posting a gushing message to her “Darling Jack”, declaring: “I love you unconditionally and I just wish I could make it all better.” While more than 16,400 fans on Instagram liked the long and rambling message of support, her husband was not one of them. And on Thursday the actress was forced to publicly declare that Jack McManus , 40, had “decided” to end their troubled 12-year marriage , adding: “I accept his decision.
” The split is the latest blow for Martine, 48, who had been plagued with bad luck since tying the knot with the songwriter and dad of their nine-year-old son Rafferty. She had the world at her feet before they met, having won the nation’s hearts playing doomed single mum Tiffany Mitchell in EastEnders for four years. After leaving the BBC One soap, she had a No1 single in 1999 with This Is My Moment and her portrayal of Eliza Doolittle in a West End production of My Fair Lady won her an Olivier Award in 2002.
READ MORE MARTINE MCCUTCHEON And she was set to become the toast of Tinseltown after starring as Natalie, the Downing Street tea lady who catches the Prime Minister’s eye in 2003 romcom Love Actually, with Hugh Grant playing the lovestruck premier. Agents lined up meetings with Hollywood movie producers, but she never quite made it to the very top. Instead, the past 15 years has seen her battling chronic illness, heartbreaking miscarriages, family tragedies and bankruptcy, as the acting work dried.