LOOSE WOMAN
HEARTBROKEN Andrea McLean felt so low after her second divorce she gave up on love and didn’t go out for a year.
But pals of the Loose Women star had other ideas – and set her up on a blind date.
Now, one year on, Andrea has spilled the beans on her new relationship after the Sunday Mirror snapped her enjoying a romantic Caribbean break with businessman Nick Feeney.
And in an exclusive interview, Andrea, 45, says her love life is firmly back on track – and gushes that she’s the happiest she’s been in years.
She tells us: “I never thought when I was going through terrible times that I would be able to look back and think, ‘ Wow, look how far I’ve come’.
“I was broken and sad and I’ve surprised myself at how strong I really am. I am proud of myself and it feels incredible to reveal I’m happy and in love.
“I’m hopeful and excited about the future now, rather than thinking my life is over.”
She adds: “It’s been a remarkable turnaround and I’m still pinching myself.”
Mum- of- two Andrea’s first marriage to childhood sweetheart Nick Green ended after 17 years in 2003.
PANIC
Then in 2009, she married builder Steve Toms.
When that marriage crumbled in 2012, the devastated TV host suffered a panic attack before a Loose Women show, followed by a string of illnesses.
For Andrea, enough was enough. “I decided I wasn’t going to bother with men any more,” she recalls. “When you get divorced, you feel scared and vulnerable and you don’t want to get hurt again. No one gets married thinking it isn’t going to last forever.
“The break- up of my second marriage was so painful I struggled to bring myself back from the brink.
“I was extremely sad about thinking I would never meet anyone again but I got my head around it. That was how my life was going to be.”
When Andrea broke up with Steve, her parents were so worried they sold their Cheshire home and moved down South to help her look after her children Finlay, 13, and eight-year-old Amy.
Andrea’s rapid weight loss triggered calls to the show from viewers worried about her health.
“I was very fragile,” she admits. “Collapsing on the set of Loose Women was the stuff of nightmares.
“After that, I came down with shingles and had a virus three times after that. It was incredibly debilitating.
“It took an incredibly long time to build myself back up again.”
Despite her clear lack of self-esteem and confidence, a friend on Loose Women decided Andrea should not give up on love and unbeknown to the star, her life was
about to change for the better. “One of the really lovely make-up artists, Donna, sat me down at the beginning of last year and said, ‘ We can’t bear the thought of you looking so sad’,” she says.
“She told me I deserved to be happy. She said there was a friend of her husband’s who had been separated for quite a while and she thought the two of us would get on really well.”
Andrea and her future beau Nick met in a bar in Brighton, accompanied by Donna and her hubby, for the double date.
“Apparently Nick very nearly didn’t come and I very nearly didn’t go either,” reveals Andrea. “We only went because we didn’t