Actress Martine McCutcheon, who starred in EastEnders and the hit film Love Actually, has battled illness and financial problems. But now she’s back, she tells Gabrielle Fagan

SOMETIMES, music is the answer. And never more so than for Martine McCutcheon, who is answering back to seven years of pain, suffering and depression by singing with a new nationwide tour, Don Black’s Songbook.

Showcasing the legendary songwriter’s hits and Oscar-winning scores, McCutcheon found that one song in particular, As If We Never Said Goodbye, summed up perfectly what she has been through.

“The song is about losing your confidence and losing your footing within the industry and then kind of building yourself back up again,” she says.

McCutcheon sprang to fame aged 18 as Tiffany Mitchell in EastEnders, had a hit with This Is My Moment and won a coveted Laurence Olivier award for her portrayal of Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady in a West End production in 2002. She also played the love-struck secretary to the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant), in 2003’s Love Actually. But then it all came crashing down.

“Years of hell” saw her stricken by the chronic fatigue syndrome ME. She was confined to a wheelchair for a time and even contemplated suicide. Last year, after years being unable to work, she was also declared bankrupt.

Although she now looks glowing with health, McCutcheon, 37, says: “It’s been very, very tough. It’s taken me a long time to get myself together and get back again. Suffering excruciating pain for years with no medicine to ease it can get the better of you.”

McCutcheon, originally from Hackney, London, first suffered health problems while she was performing in My Fair Lady, eventually forcing her to pull out of the highly successful show. “That was put down to a virus, but also it’s incredibly demanding performing eight shows a week,” she says.

A few years later, she felt so ill that she collapsed 20 times, piled on weight and suffered from depression.

“I had unbelievable pain in my muscles and my joints, was incredibly tired and fatigued the whole time. I kept going to all these experts and having blood tests, but nobody could find anything that made sense.

“The doctors finally had a ‘eureka’ moment and told me what I had, but then revealed they didn’t know what to do about it. I felt in complete despair.”

Throughout it all, she was sustained by the love of her husband, singer and songwriter Jack McManus.

While she still has to cope with symptoms of the condition – “it’s about constantly managing it and keeping it at bay” – she feels she’s gained more understanding of why the illness struck and how to deal with it. “I was very young when I found success and I am by nature a perfectionist to the point of fault,” she says. “I definitely paid a price for that. I was incredibly hard on myself.”

“Now I see my body is trying to protect me rather than hinder me and I listen to what it tells me. I pace myself, don’t push beyond my limits and rest when I need to.”