It’s been an incredibly tough few years for Loose Women’s Linda Robson. First came the breakdown and battle with drinking and OCD that left her on suicide watch.

And now she’s mid-divorce from the man she once called her rock – her husband of 33 years, Mark Dunford. Speaking for the first time about the split, Linda, 65, has now ruled out finding love again as she plans to move out of her long-term home into a two-bed house near her children. But, speaking to OK! magazine, she says it’s not her broken marriage that is haunting her most – it’s her guilt.

Linda, who had a breakdown and ended up in rehab, says: “I gave my family the worst time. I still find it hard to forgive myself for that. I’d always been the ‘strong’ one. Suddenly, they all had to look after me. I felt so bad for what I’d done to everyone who loved me. My family would come and visit me on Sundays – instead of us all at home having a roast together. It was the worst time of my life, ever.”

Linda had a breakdown and ended up in rehab ( 
Image:
OK! Magazine / Alex James)
To outsiders, the guilt may seem misplaced. The Birds of A Feather star began to spiral in 2018 after a bad reaction to diazepam, prescribed to help her sleep. It led to a nervous breakdown, OCD and heavy boozing before a long road to recovery.

But though back to her “old self”, Linda will never again have the same family – as she has split from Mark, the father of her children Louis, 32, and Bobbie, 28. She says there was nothing dramatic about the split though. They simply grew apart, she says, adding: “People do, sometimes, don’t they? We never had that much in common. I’m very sociable. Mark never enjoyed that side of things.”

What kept them together for so long, she believes, was their children – and she’s quick to point out that Mark has always been “an amazing dad”. “I’ve been sad about it, of course I have,” she says. “But we had two lovely children together. But they’re all grown up, living their own lives now. Now, it’s me and Dolly the dog. [But] I’m in a really good place. Work’s good.”

Linda and Mark are planning to sell the period home they shared in Islington, Central London, and Linda is getting a two-bed home nearby, so she can be near the kids. But while she’s officially single again, Linda is not looking for another relationship.

Linda’s full interview and shoot is in this week’s OK! magazine

“No, no, no!” she squeals. “I don’t need a man. I’ve got my friends and my family. I’m not interested in dating, I’m too old now. I can’t be bothered with all that ‘jiggy jiggy’.” Speaking of which, Linda’s mischievous actress pal Denise Welch bought her a vibrator last year, having realised her friend had never owned one. “I was like, what the hell do I do with this?,” she says. “What if the kids find it?! So I ended up giving that away!”

Linda is sharing her new beginning in her memoir Truth Be Told: Tales from a Baggy Mouth, which was an emotional but therapeutic experience to write. In it, Linda charts her fascinating life, from growing up in a working-class family in Islington to becoming one of Britain’s most adored TV stars.

She also reveals she has only been in love twice, first with boyfriend Tony Tyler, with whom she had daughter Lauren, then Mark. She has come a long way from her darkest days when, as she admits in the book, she “didn’t feel like she could carry on”. “It’s true,” she nods. “But I’m still here.”

Linda at her wedding to Mark ( 

Image:
REX/Shutterstock)

Linda Robson, Jane Moore, Nadia Sawalha and Kelly Holmes on Loose Women ( 
Image:
Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Linda adds: “If anyone had told me I’d have a nervous breakdown, I’d have gone, ‘Me? Are you mad?!’ I’ve learned a lot about mental health. I never thought about it before what happened to me. I think a lot about it now. I’m just so relieved to be back to my old self.”

Two weeks ago, her kids and grandchildren took her out to mark four years since returning to Loose Women alongside co-stars such as Jane Moore, Nadia Sawalha and Kelly Holmes.

Linda’s struggle began in January 2017 when she quit her nightly bottle of wine after an item on Loose Women.

Going cold turkey meant she had to up her sleeping pills to sleep, only for the doctor to switch them to diazepam, which caused a bad reaction and sparked her downward spiral.

Her OCD spiralled out of control. She was having five baths a day, had to change the bed and empty the bin continuously, had to carry a toothbrush everywhere and had to keep her phone at exactly 100% .

As the OCD left her hyper, she drank more and more to numb it. It was on a girls’ trip to Ibiza in July 2018, that her Loose Women colleagues realised she needed help. She had some treatment but then the drinking began to get worse. At Christmas 2018 police were called to her home and her family were discussing having her sectioned.

Her daughter had even been banned from being alone with her grandchildren. And she admits self-harming in hospital. But she has not touched a drop of alcohol in years and is off all medication now. And she has plenty of friends, including some in very high places.

Sarah Ferguson was such a fan of Birds of a Feather that she sent Linda a personal Christmas card for years. “[Queen] Camilla loved it, too,” says Linda. “She came to ITV once, as she wanted to meet the Birds Of A Feather girls. She was so lovely. We ended up just talking about our grandchildren!”