Martine McCutcheon’s estranged mother wants to reconcile.
The Love Actually actress and her mother Jenny Tomlin used to be extremely close but the tragic death of Martine’s brother Laurence John, 31, in 2022, tore them apart as Jenny, 69, suffered an emotional breakdown.
Jenny told OK! Magazine: “When I lost LJ, I detached. I was so heartbroken I couldn’t talk to Martine.
“There was no big row – Martine tried to contact me for months, but I didn’t answer. Martine was grieving and needed me. I want the chance to say sorry. I miss her so much – it physically hurts.”
Martine, 49, and Jenny did meet briefly last year but it wasn’t the big reunion that Jenny hoped for.
She said: “Martine texted me out of the blue. She’d moved into a new home and wondered if my husband Alan could do some painting. We jumped at the chance and went over but we didn’t talk in depth. It was awkward and the atmosphere felt heavy.”
Jenny blames herself for the rift and despite being devastated over LJ’s death from ischaemic heart disease and diabetes, she believes she “broke” Martine’s heart.
She said: “It’s not the natural order to lose a child.
“I didn’t contact Martine, I abandoned her. I was so wrapped up in my own grief that I was neglecting my other child. That was the start of it and things just snowballed. And here we are.
“Eventually I did pull myself out of that dark hole but maybe it was too late.
“I let Martine down, there’s not a day goes by when I don’t think of her. I’ve lost one child, I don’t want to lose another.”
