Loose Women star and Daily Mirror agony aunt Coleen Nolan turns the big 6-0 on Wednesday – and there’s only one thing she’s in the mood for…. Yes, that’s right – dancing.
For while it’s just two months since she lost Linda, Coleen knows her big sister would have insisted on her doing what The Nolans do best as she hits the landmark day.
“It does feel weird that I’m turning 60 so soon after losing Linda,” Coleen exclusively tells the Mirror, after throwing a big London bash for her colleagues and family. “[But] parties were her thing, so she would have insisted on some kind of celebration that involved music and dancing.”
It was two months ago that fellow Mirror columnist Linda, 65, passed away from double pneumonia following a 20-year cancer ordeal. It came 12 years after the Nolans lost sister Bernie aged 52 to the same disease. So while some might fear entering a new landmark decade, Coleen just appreciates she’s one of the luckier ones
A young Coleen Nolan takes to the stage in Blackpool
Loose Women star Coleen is still entertaining us now ( instagram/@coleen_nolan)
“But I’m just incredibly grateful to get the chance to celebrate another year and I feel blessed that I’m still doing work that I love.”
Coleen was born in Blackpool after her family moved here from Ireland – and joined the Nolan Sisters, aged just nine, in 1974. The band, which later changed its name to The Nola n s, sold more than 30million records worldwide, before the sisters moved into careers on TV, with Coleen ultimately joining Loose Women in 2000 and enjoying stints on reality hits such as Dancing On Ice and Celebrity Big Brother.
She’s been less lucky in love however after divorcing the father of her two boys, Shane Richie and the father of her daughter Ciara, Ray Fensome. And in the days leading up to her big birthday, Coleen admits she began to fear the fact that she was entering a new decade alone having split with her boyfriend-of-two-years Michael Jones in December.
Coleen Nolan introduced her ex Michael Jones to Loose Women viewers in 2022 ( ITV) “[I’m] turning 60 as a single woman and, while that’s right for me at this stage, I did have a moment this week of feeling a little sad that I might not get to love again,” Coleen confesses. Her biggest fear is not meeting another Mr Right, after realising how few eligible men she crosses path with in her day-to-day life.
“I love being in love and being loved, and I feel I still have a lot to give in that department,” she says. “But I won’t be doing the dating app thing again – if I do meet someone it’ll be through fate or friends, although I can’t really imagine it, as the only guys I meet in my industry are either too young, married or gay!”
But Coleen is never one to look on the negative side for too long.
“When I look back on the past 60 years, I feel proud that I’ve come so far on my own, being able to buy my little farm and to be there for my kids,” she adds in her weekly Mirror newsletter. “I’ve been through hard times and heartache, but I’m lucky to have had a lot of love in my life – two husbands who gave me my brilliant children, as well as fun relationships before, in between and afterwards.”
