I stayed with him too long
Coleen Nolan
Singer and television personality September 10, 2018
When I found out Shane [Richie to whom she was married from 1990 to 1999] had been unfaithful, I thought it was a blip and we’d have counselling and everything would be fine. If I could go back, I’d leave.
I stayed two years too long. But I was massively in love with him. To me, there was nothing missing in our relationship.
He’s said that too, he said he doesn’t really understand what happened. Well, he does... he wanted to have his cake and eat it.
I loved him but in the end I thought, I’m not one of those women who keeps turning a blind eye. In the end, I think we’ve done OK. We stayed really good friends and we still are.
My sisters find it hilarious that I do a chat show [Loose Women] when I wouldn’t say boo to a goose when we were younger.
It wasn’t a planned career move. I went on to a talk show to talk about my break-up with Shane, and it became a regular job.
I realised I did have things to say, I’d just never had a chance in that massive family.
For the last three years of my marriage with Ray [guitarist Ray Fensome to whom she was married from 2007 to 2018] we did everything we could to save it. We weren’t rowing. We were just leading separate lives.
I decided, I don’t want a lodger. So I’d rather you leave and we can be great friends. I don’t look back at the last 17 years as a failure.
I look at them as being great and giving us our fantastic daughter. If I could go back to any moment in my life it would be in my mid-30s. I’d broken up with Shane and I had thought I’d never be in love again [or] have more children. Then there I was, in love and pregnant. I loved my 30s, and my 40s. I’m not really loving my 50s. I think partly because I lost my sister. And now there’s my second marriage gone.
And I’m thinking, oh Christ, here I go again.