'I don't need a man - I can't be bothered with all that jiggy jiggy'

Loose Women star Linda Robson opens up on separating from her husband of 33 years, her mental health struggles, and surviving her darkest days with the help of family and friends

- SHELLEY SPADONI

Linda Robson is an open book and she’s ready to reveal all about the struggles she’s been through, how she overcame tough times, and what she’s looking forward to in the next chapter of her life. When the Loose Women and Birds Of A Feather star meets OK! for an exclusive photoshoot, she’s warm, honest and funny, putting everyone at ease with her witty one-liners in that unmistakable Cockney accent.

But there are dark times to discuss too, and Linda, 65, whose new memoir, Truth Be Told: Tales Of A Baggy Mouth, is out this week, doesn’t hold back.

Linda readily admits that the past few years have been some of the hardest of her life. She went through a highly publicised breakdown in 2018 which saw her admitted to rehab and on suicide watch, then a subsequent addiction to alcohol, and the shock revelation that she and her husband of 33 years, Mark Dunford, with whom she has grown-up children Louis, 32, and Bobbie, 28, were divorcing.

Linda has another daughter, Lauren, 40 – and two grandchildren – with her former partner, the late Tony Tyler.

As she asks for another brew (she takes hers so weak, she says friends joke it’s “Linda’s cup of milk”), she speaks for the first time about her impending divorce from Mark and admits that there is “sadness”, but she seems quietly confident about this new phase.

The split, she explains, wasn’t “dramatic” – they both simply realised they had gradually grown apart.