Heartbroken Martine McCutcheon lifts lid on marriage collapse & reveals anxiety turned her into a recluse

ACTRESS Martine McCutcheon says she turned into a recluse when her doomed marriage to Jack McManus first came under strain.

The star, 48, could not face going out and feared she was “losing her mind” when the transition to menopause kicked in.

Martine, who announced last week singer-songwriter Jack had decided to leave her after 12 years married, said: “I didn’t want to answer my phone.

“I didn’t want to answer the front door, go outside and I would panic out of nowhere and have to pull over when I was driving because I felt this huge fear and couldn’t breathe.”

Martine — Tiffany Mitchell in EastEnders from 1995 to 1999 — told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: “I genuinely felt I was losing my mind.

“I didn’t know if I really was or if it was something that was perimenopausal.

“It would just come on out of nowhere and when I spoke to my specialist about it she said, ‘You know this is sadly the case for many women’.”

Martine, who was also in Love Actually and had a pop career, says she recovered thanks to hormonal treatments recommended by a specialist.

Martine and Jack, 40, met in 2006, married in 2012 and have a nine-year-old son, Rafferty.

A source claimed they were “having issues two years ago”.

They added: “She was the one fighting to save the marriage.”

The actress said she accepted Jack’s decision they should split, adding: “We both, of course, still cherish and look forward to being parents together.”