AGONY AUNT COLEENMY MARRIAGE IS OVER
Daily Record columnist and Loose Women star reveals she is divorcing husband Ray
RECORD agony aunt Coleen Nolan yesterday revealed she is divorcing husband Ray Fensome. The TV presenter and singer had revealed cracks in her 10-year second marriage as far back as 2016. And now she has revealed efforts to save the relationship have failed after a “hellish” year. Coleen, 52, said: “There is too much dividing me and Ray. We can’t go back. And my future is going to be very different to the one I’d imagined.” Loose Women star Coleen explains the heartbreak decision in her agony aunt column today. She writes: “I can hardly sit here and keep dishing out advice if I’m not being totally straight about what is going on in my own life.” Coleen and guitarist Ray, 60, have been together for 17 years and have 16-year-old daughter Ciara together. Ray proposed on Coleen’s 40th birthday in 2005 and they married in November 2007.
Mum-of-three Coleen said she has fought for the marriage “with every fibre of my being”.
She added: “I’ve got tears pouring down my face as I write this. It’s hard to imagine that so much could have changed from that day when we married.”
Coleen, who found fame with her family pop group The Nolans, said she has been putting on a brave face in the hope her marriage would work out.
She added: “For the last couple of years I’ve got up in the morning hoping desperately everything would be all right. Now I have to admit it’s not going to be all right.
“Or maybe it is – just in a very different way to how I’d once imagined.”
In 2016, Coleen announced she was considering a trial separation.
And there was more speculation the marriage was in trouble when Coleen entered the Celebrity Big Brother house last year.
She said: “I’ve been honest on Loose Women for a while that Ray and I have been having problems and it’s all I thought about in the Big Brother house.
“That was tough, even when I won, because I was so hoping that time spent apart while I was in the house would help us get our marriage back on track.
“We were already in trouble then and sadly even having time out to think wasn’t enough to save us.”
The end of her marriage isn’t the first time Coleen has suffered heartache.
She was devastated when her ex-husband, EastEnders actor Shane Richie, had an affair and their nine-year marriage ended in 1999.
After watching his mum break down on TV about his dad’s affair last year, Shane jnr, 29, changed his surname to Nolan to support her.
The couple’s other son, Jake, 25, is in the pop band Rixton and uses his father’s real surname of Roche.