Former EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison has recalled the devastating moment she discovered her husband was having an affair after following him to a ‘dingy love nest.’

The actress, best known for her role as hapless Heather Trott in the BBC soap, divorced first husband Jamshed Saddiqi in 2008 after his infidelity with another woman was exposed.

And Fergison, 59, admits it took some ‘solid detective work’ on her part to finally uncover the truth following weeks of mounting suspicion, and a growing list of clues.

Recalling the unsavoury incident in new autobiography Behind The Scenes, the actress – a parent to son Alex, 25, from her marriage to Saddiqi, an Afghan refugee – admits suspicions were initially raised when she detected an unfamiliar perfume in his car.

‘I pulled the seatbelt across my body and then it hit me. A scent. Light, sweet, floral and powdery, but definitely not mine,’ she writes.

Fergison claims her former husband attempted to brush the lingering smell off as ‘a mate’s aftershave,’ but worse followed when the actress found a number she didn’t recognise on their phone bill.

Former EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison has recalled the devastating moment she discovered her husband was having an affair after following him to a ‘dingy love nest’

The actress, best known for her role as hapless Heather Trott in the BBC soap (pictured), divorced first husband Jamshed Saddiqi in 2008

After initially calling the number and hearing a woman’s voice on the end of the line, Fergison was stunned when her second call to the same number was answered by Saddiqi.

‘I began to suspect that my husband was cheating on me,’ she writes. ‘But I tried to convince myself I was wrong.’

The actress eventually established where her husband was meeting his mistress, and was stunned by what she saw after following him to a  “dingy, makeshift love nest.”

‘And there, perched on the dirty bed she shared with my husband, was a skinny blonde woman, sipping a bright blue WKD like it was the most natural thing in the world,’ she recalls.

 ‘Jay stood next to her, caught in the headlights, but still silent, still unwilling to give me anything. Not an apology, not an explanation, not even an ounce of shame.

‘That night, I packed up the car, strapped Alex into his seat and drove to London. Leaving my marriage and Jay behind.’

But three years after their divorce the actress suffered a further blow after discovering she had been left penniless as a result of their short-lived marriage.

‘For five years, I paid him. For five years he pocketed the money and didn’t pay a single penny to HMRC,’ she writes.

Fergison and son Alex (pictured front, her only child with ex-husband Saddiqi) attend a premiere in 2009, one year after her divorce

The actress now lives with second husband Yassine Al-Jermoni in Blackpool, but visa problems initially prevented the Moroccan national relocating to the United Kingdom

‘Everything I had built, saved and worked for was gone. I don’t use the word hate very often. It’s a heavy word, one you can’t always take back, but in this case, I meant it. I hated him.’

She added: ‘Going broke when you’re famous is the worst, because everyone expects you to have lots of money.

‘People assume that you’re minted. They don’t imagine you’re juggling overdrafts, maxed-out credit cards, payday loans and mountains of bills. But that was exactly where I found myself.’

The actress now lives with second husband Yassine Al-Jermoni in Blackpool, but visa problems initially prevented the Moroccan national relocating to the United Kingdom after marrying Fergison in 2011.

Al-Jermoni remained in his native Morocco for nine years, during which a devastating earthquake, its subsequent relief effort and the coronavirus pandemic created additional obstacles .

She told OK! magazine: ‘We try to keep our business private but yes financially it can be a strain to get these visas. But we’re here now, we’re in Blackpool – the Vegas of the north! – and we’re settled.’

Al-Jermoni remained in his native Morocco for nine years, during which a devastating earthquake and the coronavirus pandemic created additional obstacles  for the couple

Despite her on-screen character Heather Trott being unlucky in love, the actress enjoyed a whirlwind romance with her second husband after meeting him online in 2010.

She soon jetted out to his hometown of Agadir and they got hitched by the following June.

Fergison previously revealed she didn’t reveal her identity to Al-Jermoni, who is 21 years her junior, for five months after they starting messaging online.

Talking to Loose Women in 2017, the soap star admitted she enjoyed an ‘old-fashioned’ courtship with her second husband.

She said: ‘We met online and wrote to one another on the computer and spoke on the computer. It was very old-fashioned.

‘He didn’t know what I did for a living. I didn’t show him my picture. It was five months of chat before we met each other.’

‘I saw him and it was like “ping”. I knew he was the man I was going to marry.’