Martine McCutcheon had quit acting. Then she received a call about a movie called Love Actually.

Most of us know Martine McCutcheon as the actress who played the Prime Minister's hapless assistant Natalie in perennial Christmas favourite Love Actually.

But prior to the 2003 film, McCutcheon had already been well-known throughout the UK for her role as Tiffany in popular soap opera EastEnders, which she held from the age of 17 to 23. She is also a singer and has released four studio albums over the years, with her song 'Perfect Moment' scoring a number one on the UK Singles Chart in 1999. On top of that, McCutcheon is a highly regarded stage performer.

Watch: The 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' scene in Love Actually. Story continues below.

Yet there was a time when she wanted to give all of it up.

In a recent interview with The Mirror, the now 46-year-old shared she had decided to quit acting in her 20s after suffering from burnout.

"I'd worked from the age of 17 playing Tiffany - it was a relentless schedule of 22 scenes a day, six days a week, alongside my pop career. There was a lot of pressure, a lot of touring and I battled with exhaustion and felt unwell," she said. "Then there was the press scrutiny. I had paparazzi running after me. I was only 23 and lived on my own - it was scary. I just thought, 'I love what I do but I don't love what comes with it', so I called my agent and gave up the industry. I remember thinking, 'If I'm meant to stay in it, I'll get a big sign'."

The big sign came in the form of a phone call from her agent while McCutcheon was on sabbatical in Spain. She had just slept for three days straight after her critically acclaimed performance as Eliza Doolittle in the stage production of My Fair Lady when she picked up the phone.

Her agent told her that director and writer Richard Curtis wanted her to star opposite Hugh Grant in a movie called Love Actually and filming was starting next week - could she fly back?

"I literally dropped the phone," McCutcheon said. "That film completely changed my life because I wouldn't have been in the industry any more. When I first saw Four Weddings And A Funeral it was my absolute dream to work with Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis - I fell in love with the writing and I fell in love with Hugh."

Since Love Actually, the actress has appeared in several TV shows and has also appeared as a regular panellist on British talk show Loose Women from 2016 to 2017.

She married fellow singer Jake McManus in 2012 and the couple welcomed their son, Rafferty Jack McManus, in 2015. McCutcheon has been open about her struggles with a chronic fatigue syndrome called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), which she was diagnosed with in 2011. She was also diagnosed with Lyme disease (a tick-borne illness) and fibromyalgia (musculoskeletal pain disorder).

"You're pushed to your limits too much. You feel like you're really hungover, like you've been beaten up by Mike Tyson. I was getting lots of infections and my immune system was down," she shared on Loose Women. "I've just had to pace myself and realise what matters. At one point for about a week, I was in a wheelchair. I didn't trust myself."

In an interview with Hello! magazine last year, she said that while she is coping well, having invisible illnesses can make her feel unsupported or misunderstood.

"I look at it that when I get symptoms or when my body starts clanging, it's a sign for me to pace myself, rest. And I think it gives me that when somebody else would just logically think, 'Oh, I need to just take a rest', mentally, I don't do that, so my body does it for me. So, yeah, I've definitely learned to look at it as a good messenger rather than something that simply gets in the way," she said.

"I also think that when we talk about it, we do it in a delicate, personal way and we don't just make it 'Instagrammable' all the time. The illness can turn your world upside down and everybody's situation is very personal and unique to them. I think that it's key to remember that."

In a social media post earlier this year, McCutcheon wrote about her illnesses and mental health, and not wanting to be seen as a victim.

"I've always been pretty open about my health issues - both mental & physical, but there is also so much more to me - So it’s something I’ve touched on rather than focused on. I didn't want any kind of victim label, as I actually feel the opposite of that," she wrote. "I like to think I'm quite a brave person. An optimist. A go-getter & a believer of the good in people. But I've had a time of struggle recently. I'm not always as tough as I'd like to be."

In October this year, McCutcheon's younger brother Laurence John (LJ) passed away suddenly. He was only 31 and was engaged to be married to his fiancée Jay Eaton.

"There is no medical explanation as to why we lost him so soon and whilst we investigate further, we are having to accept that nothing will bring our boy back to us," she wrote on Instagram. "My heart aches for all who have lost him. But my heart breaks for our mum, his dad John and his step parents. You should never outlive your children. I'm scared to live without you LJ but I know you will want us to truly live, laugh and love in your memory. I will try I promise."

Later, she thanked her fans for their support, and told them she was going back to work.

"I know my brother would want me to keep on going and he was so proud of me and the fact that I liked to inspire people and make them feel good and give them a little bit of magic where I could. I felt him with me, and I did it on my first day back. I did it," she said. "Grief is a strange old thing and there is no one way to navigate it but it felt good to do some work. I was nervous but I did it."

McCutcheon reunited with her fellow Love Actually cast members for the 20th anniversary with Diane Sawyer last month and shared she and Grant are still good friends. And despite the movie's lack of diversity - which director Curtis admits makes him feel "uncomfortable and a bit stupid" - as well as the fat-shaming of McCutcheon's character, she still loves the film.

"Of course, it's easy to say now, 'We would have done this, we would have done that', but I also think that the characters weren’t being PC. They weren’t perfect humans - they were talking about their insecurities, their affairs," she said. "There are a lot of things that you're not allowed to say now, but I think that in a film that covers so much emotion and so much love, you need a little bit of reality in there - it's not always about ticking all the boxes."

Yet unlike the rest of the world, McCutcheon won't be watching Love Actually this Christmas.

"Whenever Love Actually comes on, my mum goes, 'Babe! You're on.' I'm like, 'Mum, when are you going to get that I can't bear to watch myself back on TV?'" she said.

"When we were at the premiere most of us were squirming in our seats. We were in our frocks and suits going, 'Oh God!' at this huge screen. It's the mannerisms you pull and the expressions you make and there's this massive screen with your face!"

Feature Image: Universal Pictures/Love Actually.