Coleen on Shane divorce
My divorce from Shane was bizarre, really, as we always got on so well. While he treated me terribly at times towards the end, we had got married for a reason – because we loved each other and had a lot of fun.
At the root of it all, we’ve always got on really well. Even when things were bad between us we’d still end up making each other laugh
– and, sometimes, in the strangest of circumstances.
Every time we went to court we’d end up going for a coffee afterwards. Our solicitors used to look at each other and shake their heads, saying: “What the heck are they doing?”
The only downside to this was that Shane took ages to sign the papers. “Have you signed those papers from the solicitor?” I used to say to him.
“Shut up!” he’d reply. “As if you’re going to divorce me!”
We’d always been such great mates, you see, that having to be serious with each other about such a depressing subject was difficult. The temptation was always just to laugh everything off and, had I not eventually forced myself to be hard on him, we’d probably still have been married.
He’d have said: “I’ll tell you what, Col, let’s not bother getting divorced. We’ll go for a coffee instead.” From Live. Laugh. Love: Lessons I’ve Learned, Coleen Nolan, published Oct 28 by Constable, £16.99