F I’d like a bit of romance.. but not with the 20yr-olds who send me rude pictures
COLEEN NOLAN: MY NEW LIFE AS A SINGLE WOMAN
OR the first time in her life, Coleen Nolan is single – and she’s loving it. As she throws herself into her career and prepares to move into a dream new home, finding love couldn’t be further from her thoughts.
Loose Women star Coleen, 54, is happy to admit she hasn’t had sex for three years, not since before her divorce to second husband Ray Fensome – and says she doesn’t miss it.
“This is the first time I’ve been properly single,” she says. “If I was to miss anything, it would be the intimacy. I’m super romantic, so I miss the romance.
“Kissing, hugging, sitting down watching a film together – but the actual act, no. The Loose Women told me it was the menopause, that it can make you lose your libido. Well, mine’s just died, it’s left home.”
Coleen, whose first marriage to TV star Shane Ritchie lasted nine years, announced her divorce from musician Ray in 2018, saying the “emotional and physical connection” had gone.
Now, she says, if she does meet a new man, it would have to be a relaxed affair.
“In my mind and my heart now, I just don’t see the point of marrying again,” she says. “I don’t even know if I want to fully live with someone ever again.
“My daughter Ciara’s protective, she’s really against me meeting someone else, whereas my boys Shane and Jake are quite cool about it. So if it happens it’ll be role reversal – I’ll be the one trying to sneak someone out.”
The star, soon due to tour in hit play The Thunder Girls, says – unlike a couple of
BY VIKKI WHITE her Loose colleagues – her ideal man needs to be over 40 and make her laugh. “I know Denise Welch and Carol McGiffin have got younger husbands and that’s great,” she says. “But I’ve never really been into younger men and it would make me feel old.” That doesn’t stop a lot of interest from younger men in Coleen and she’s regularly sent explicit photos online from 20-somethings. “It’s so bizarre,” she says. “I don’t want to see that thank you. Do they think I’m loaded or do they think I’m really sad and lonely and I’ll be flattered to have a 25-year-old on my arm?” Sitting in the kitchen of her Cheshire home with dogs curled up at her feet, Coleen says her house is filled with 13 years of mostly happy memories but she can’t wait to make a fresh start. Shane, 31, Jake, 27 and Ciara, 19, still live at home, with Shane’s girlfriend and a bandmate of pop star Jake making up the mix. “The kids are moving with me,” she laughs. “I think because I’ve grown up in such a big family, I’m used to noise.” After navigating the tricky waters of divorce, Coleen and Ray have come out of the other side great pals. “We’re such good friends now and it’s made us realise that’s maybe all we should have been,” says Coleen. “Divorce is painful and it’s hard. I thought we were never going to get there. I don’t believe in holding on to anger. I’m friends with Shane, too.” Coleen has dreamed of owning a home with land for her two horses and she is building stables at her new pad. The house comes at a cost and thankfully she is in demand more than ever. “I’m putting a lot of strain on myself buying this house because it’s just me,” she says. “But I’m coming up to 55 and I’m so busy. And whenever I do feel a bit worn out or a bit ‘I don’t want to do it’, I think of Bernie who’d love to be here and doing that work.” Coleen’s sister
COLEEN NOLAN ON HER LATE SISTER
and fellow Nolans star Bernie died of breast cancer in July 2013, aged 53. “She didn’t make 55 so I always think of her to give me a bit of a kick up the bum,” says Coleen. “She is ruling my life even though she’s not here. I think about her every day.”
Coleen will head on tour with The Thunder Girls later this year. The hit play, which tells the tale of an 80s girl band reuniting and all the scandal, betrayal, rivalry and friendship that comes with it, came at the right time for the telly star.
“I’m a real homebody and I’ve turned down big tours in the past because I’d be away for too long,” she says. “But I loved doing The Thunder Girls so much when we did it in September and it broke box-office records in Manchester. I just couldn’t
miss out on being in the show again.” Coleen had never acted before she threw herself in at the deep end alongside experienced stars such as Coronation Street’s Beverley Callard.
“Being on stage opposite an actress as famous as Beverley was intimidating at first, she is amazing in this – at one point her character slaps Carol Harrison’s character and you wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of that!”
Coleen was particularly drawn to The Thunder Girls story of a girl band reuniting decades on – much like the Nolans reforming. But she insists the play is far more toxic.
“The Thunder Girls haven’t seen or spoken to each other in 30 years before the night the play is set on,” she says. “I know bands like that who behind the scenes won’t be in the same car. That’s why I had to do it – I know it’s real.” The Nolans, however, are much closer. “I didn’t speak to Anne and Denise for about four years and Bernie’s death actually just makes you go, ‘What are we doing?’” says Coleen. “We’re in a really good place.”
The star also can’t wait to film a new series of The All New Monty, which raises awareness of cancer.
Coleen is meticulous about checking her breasts, with Bernie, Anne and Linda all suffering from breast cancer. “I try not to let it make me paranoid,” she says. “I also flip it the other way and go, ‘And that’s why you should live your life’. I’m determined to seize every moment.”
For more information on the show go to thundergirls.co.uk.