I wasn’t going to bother with men any more. Divorce makes you scared of getting hurt... but I’m happy and so in love
ANDREA McLEAN ON HER NEW FELLA
want to be rude to our friends. I couldn’t see him very well because I didn’t have my contact lenses on but I thought he looked like a nice man.
“He thought I was a make-up artist and asked if I worked with Donna. He looked really confused when I said I hosted Loose Women.
“He said, ‘I don’t really watch telly during the day so I don’t watch your show’. I like that, it was nice to know he wasn’t looking for fame.”
She says: “We went for a drink, then we went for something to eat, then we went dancing. I saw Nick making the moves and I have never laughed so hard in my life, I just thought that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. It was a pretty good place to start because he really made me laugh.” Like Andrea, Nick has experienced the devastating breakup of a marriage.
The Loose Women star said their mutual pain meant the couple were cautious about starting a new relationship. “I needed to know Nick was ready,” Andrea says. “It was well over six months before I thought, ‘ Yes, this has a future’, and introduced him to my kids.” However, Andrea says marriage is not on the cards just yet. And while she now seems relaxed about spilling the beans on her relationship, being pictured in her bikini caused a lot more grief.
“I went into work and said you’ve now all seen my white, wobbly bottom,” she laughs. “Because in the worst picture, I have a massive wedgie. I just wanted to howl, it was so embarrassing and awful.”
And she confesses she had made the mistake of reading online comments about her holiday snaps when she came home. “Oh my God,” she says. “The worst comment said, ‘I’m really disappointed with how Andrea McLean looks because when she sits behind the desk in Loose Women I’d always imagined that she’d look better than that in a bikini’. I didn’t have any drink in the house when I was reading the comments so I made do with one of the kids’ Easter eggs and a packet of biscuits.
“I’m really normal, I do watch what I eat and exercise but I have a glass of wine and I’m a sucker for a packet of biscuits,” she says. “So on reflection, I’ve got the body I deserve.
“I was embarrassed that the pictures came out, who wouldn’t be, but actually I’m a 45-year-old mum of two who has a normal attitude to diet and exercise.”
With her love life better than ever, her professional life is also at a high point. “I feel as though everything has come together,” she says. “Work is going really well, I’ve got Loose Women, I write for the Daily Mirror, I have a column for a magazine and a QVC jewellery line. They are all things I wanted to do but never thought would happen. They are the main ingredients of my pudding, they are my ice cream and Nick is the cherry on the top.”
She hopes other women in a similar situation will see there is light at the end of the tunnel. “There are people every day that are going through terrible times and I’d tell them not to give up hope.
“When Steve and I split, I just felt so demoralised and like a failure as a mum to really gorgeous, beautiful children.
“But what I realise now is, my kids just love me as a mum,” she smiles.
“If it wasn’t for my friends I probably would still be sitting in every night,” she admits. “I could have been lonely for the rest of my life. Who knew that night would change everything?”
I feel like everything has come together. Work is my pudding and Nick is the cherry on the top