Coleen Nolan has confessed that she "cried her eyes out" when her ex-husband Shane Richie expressed his desire to take their young sons on a trip with his new partner.
The pop star and the EastEnders actor tied the knot in 1990 and had two sons together, Jake and Shane Jr. However, their marriage ended in 1997 after Coleen found out about Shane's affair with another woman.
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In her autobiography published in 2009, Coleen revealed that Shane was in Manchester performing as Danny Zuko in Grease at the time, while she and their children were living in the south. It was during this period that Coleen began to suspect something was amiss, reports Lancs Live.
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Writing in her book, the Loose Women panelist said: "At the after-show party, I can distinctly remember examining this one girl. There were loads of people there but she just stood out. She had really long dark hair and was wearing a skin-tight white dress. Well, it must have been female intuition because that turned out to be the girl Shane had an affair with."
While appearing on Loose Women: The Podcast, Coleen shared that it was only six months to a year later when Shane made a request that left her devastated. This came after a podcast listener wrote in to say that their ex-husband wanted to take their children away with his new girlfriend.
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Coleen recalled: "It happened to me, I remember when me and Shane first split up and obviously, he was with the girl that we had split up because of, and it was about six months, about a year down the line and he wanted to go to Florida with her and the boys. They hadn't even met her at this point."
The TV personality opened up about a personal experience, saying: "So I arranged for the boys to meet her with me, and she came to the house, and we chatted. Obviously it hurts you, it hurt me, you're thinking, 'what if my kids end up falling in love...because she's going to be the good guy and she'll spoil them because she wants them to love her and all of this'."
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She continued her candid revelation: "But then I thought, 'A, it doesn't matter what she does, they'll never love her as much as they love me, I'm their mum' and secondly, I don't want the boys to feel guilty and feel guilty going, that they've betrayed me. I saw them looking at me like, I knew they really wanted to go to Disney but they're looking at me and I'm like, 'No, you're going to have the best time'."
Reflecting on her emotions when they left, she confessed: "Don't get me wrong, they went off, cried my eyes out, fine. What I did is I took myself away for two weeks with a friend, I went and had a lovely time kid free, and it was great."
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After her separation from Shane, Coleen Nolan found happiness once more with musician Ray Fensome, with whom she shares daughter Ciara. They tied the knot in 2007, however their marriage ended in divorce in 2018.
Coleen was more recently in a relationship with Michael Jones after the pair met on Tinder in 2021. However, they split in late 2024.
Shane meanwhile married wife Christie in 2007. The couple live in Surrey and share children Mackenzie Blue, Lolita Bell and Romani-Skye together.
