TV’s Coleen: My marriage is over
LOOSE WOMAN TELLS OF HEARTBREAK
LOOSE Woman Coleen Nolan has revealed she’s divorcing her husband after 10 years together. The devastated star of daytime TV says it’s too late to save her relationship with Ray Fensome after what she describes as a ‘hellish’ 12 months and they ‘can’t go back.’
The 52-year-old, who says there is ‘too much dividing’ the couple has shared details of the split in her column in the M.E.N.’s sister paper The Mirror, for which she is an agony aunt.
She says she has fought for their marriage ‘with every fibre of my being.’
But she says: “Once you know your marriage is truly dead you need to make your peace with that, bury the past and move on.
“After 17 years together that’s what I’m about to do.”
She continues: “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. On that day I thought there was nothing that could split us up.
“I was convinced we’d grow old together, hobbling to the Post Office to collect our pensions. But a decade on and it’s now clear I was wrong.”
The couple got engaged in 2005 and wed two years later. They have a daughter Ciara, 16. Coleen, who found fame with family pop group The Nolans, had hoped she and guitarist Ray, 60, could work through their problems.
The mum-of-three, from Wilmslow, says: “For the last couple of years I’ve got up in the morning hoping desperately everything would be alright. Now I have to admit it’s not going to be alright.”
Coleen admitted in 2016 that they were going through difficulties.
She said at the time: “We’re going to do a lot of talking over the next couple of weeks, but if we can’t fix it then I want us to have counselling. The next step is a trial separation.”
She also spoke of marriage trouble while in the Celebrity Big Brother house last January.
She said in the Diary Room: “I came in here when my marriage wasn’t great, really not great. I think we needed a break, we needed to be apart.”
Coleen, who has sons Shane Jnr, 29, and Jake, 25, from her past marriage to EastEnders actor Shane Richie, praises her children for their backing.
She says: “My beautiful kids have all been unbelievably supportive and understanding. I want to show marriages can break down without families breaking down. So long as you’re honest.”
Coleen previously told how turning 50 hit her self-confidence and left her feeling vulnerable in her marriage.
She said: “I suddenly felt invisible as a woman and was looking for reassurance from Ray. Six months ago I said to him, ‘I don’t feel like you fancy me any more.’
“I was totally devastated when he said, ‘The thing is, men are visual.’”