Coleen Nolan has signed up for the latest series of Celebs Go Dating, and she’s hoping the agency might finally help her find her knight in shining armour.
The much-loved TV personality has been a familiar face on British screens for decades, with her love life often playing out in the public eye. She joins a star-studded line-up including rapper Professor Green, Celebrity Big Brother winner David Potts and former rugby player James Haskell.
As the new series kicks off tonight (May 4), we’re taking a closer look at Coleen’s relationships, career highs and lows, and everything in between.
Who is Coleen Nolan? How old is she?
Coleen Nolan is an English–Irish singer, television personality and author. She was born on March 12, 1965 in Blackpool, making her 61 years old.
While these days she is best known as a long-running panelist on the daytime show Loose Women, she first found fame as part of family pop group The Nolans.
She and her sisters achieved chart success in the late 1970s and 1980s with hits like I’m in the Mood for Dancing.
Over the years, Coleen has built a successful media career, appearing on various television programmes, including Celebrity Big Brother twice, writing books, and becoming known for her candid discussions on personal and social issues.
Can Coleen sing?
Yes. Coleen rose to fame after joining The Nolans in 1979.
In recent years, she has continued to perform. In 2024, she embarked on a national UK solo tour.
Why did Coleen leave Loose Women?
Coleen first joined Loose Women in 2000 and quickly became a regular on the panel.
However, in 2011 she made the sudden decision to step away. Speaking on the Not My Bagg podcast with Joe Baggs, she opened up about her reasons.
Coleen said she hadn’t originally planned to return, explaining she felt she had been doing the job “for a long time”.
“I was starting to fall out of love with it a bit,” she admitted, adding that going into work each day had started to feel like a struggle.
“I genuinely thought, ‘I’m gonna leave!’” Coleen continued.
After leaving, she appeared on This Morning and Celebrity Big Brother.
She later returned in 2013, saying: “I went back feeling refreshed, and since then, genuinely, I’ve loved it. I’ve never gone through that stage again.”
Reflecting on the decision, she added: “Life is too short to be somewhere where you’re not happy”.
How has Coleen Nolan lost weight?
Coleen has long been open about her weight journey. Between 2007 and 2009, she released four workout DVDs and lost around four stone, dropping from a size 18 to a size 10.
However, in a 2024 interview with The Sun, she admitted: “As a person, I was probably the unhappiest I’ve felt. I lost me somewhere,” she admitted. “I lost my personality and didn’t know who to be anymore.”
By 2011, she had regained weight, returning to a size 16. More recently, she has undergone another transformation after using Voy’s “fat jab” treatment.
She has lost 3-and-a-half stone and gone from a size 20 to a size 14.
Speaking about backlash, she told Bella: “I tried to not let the trolls affect me, but it was hard when they were calling me fat and all these names, because those were things that I actually thought about myself.
“Now people attack me for the opposite, claiming I’ve lost too much weight. I just can’t win.”
Why did Coleen Nolan and Shane Richie split?
Coleen married EastEnders actor Shane Richie in 1990. After nine years, they split following Shane’s infidelity.
He later admitted to the Daily Mail: “By 1996 my ego had taken over. I was getting a police escort to nightclubs. I’d be thinking, I’m 30, I’ve got bad skin but all these girls are screaming for me outside.”
He also said: “I was lying to myself about the drinking and the women, thinking I was pulling the wool over the public’s eyes. I’d be on TV advocating monogamy while I was having an affair.”
During their marriage, the pair started a family, welcoming two sons — Shane Jnr, now 37, and Jake, now 33.
On her YouTube channel, Coleen admitted to Jake that she believes she “stayed two years longer than I should have”. However, for the sake of her family, she felt she needed to “work it out” and sought therapy.
Why did Coleen Nolan split from Ray?
Coleen married her second husband, guitarist Ray Fensome, in 2007. After 10 years, they announced they were splitting in 2018.
The pair share a 24-year-old daughter Ciara Fensome, who welcomed her own son, Sidney Ray, in 2024, with her partner, Maxx Innes.
In her Daily Mirror column, Coleen opened up to readers about why she and Ray were separating.
“Me and my husband Ray are divorcing. I wanted to tell you first as I can hardly sit here and keep dishing out advice if I’m not being totally straight about what is going on in my own life. There is too much dividing me and me. We can’t go back,” she wrote.
“The last 12 months have been pretty hellish. I’ve been honest on Loose Women for a while that Ray and I have been having problems and it’s all I thought about in the Big Brother house,” Coleen continued.
“As I’ve written a million times before – women who’ve tried everything to fix a marriage but still feel desperately unhappy, have to get out. We owe it to ourselves. And we also owe it to our kids to show them that everyone has a right to be happy.”
Why did Coleen fall out with her sisters?
Coleen Nolan was famously estranged from her sisters — particularly Anne and Linda — for four years following a professional fallout after she was excluded from a 2009 Nolans reunion tour.
Speaking on Loose Women, Coleen previously reflected on the breakdown in their relationship.
“It has been well documented that me and my sisters fell out. We didn’t speak for about four years — that is a long time,” Coleen admitted.
“But at the time, I had every single person saying to me, ‘but it’s your family’. I felt like saying it can’t always be like that with family. Sometimes you have to think, if they were friends, I probably wouldn’t speak to them over what had happened and over things that had been said.”
In her 2023 book New Beginnings, Anne described the emotional moment her “stomach dropped” when she realised she had not been included in The Nolans’ 2009 tour, which featured Maureen, Linda, Coleen and Bernie.
Although sister Denise was also not part of the line-up, Anne said it did little to ease the hurt.
The sisters eventually reconciled following Bernie’s cancer diagnosis, which prompted them to put their differences aside.
“When we found out Bernie’s cancer had come back, we forgot that we weren’t speaking because we were there for her,” Anne said, adding that things have since been left in the past.
“When you’re family, you may fall out, but even at the time when we didn’t like each other very much, we still loved each other. It’s an emotion you can’t help.”
Bernie tragically died from breast cancer in 2013 at the age of 52. In 2025, Linda also passed away at 65 after developing double pneumonia, following a long battle with cancer.
Why was Coleen upset on This Morning?
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In September 2018, Coleen Nolan became emotional during an appearance on This Morning following a tense on-air exchange with Kim Woodburn on Loose Women, which stemmed from their time together on Celebrity Big Brother.
Coleen said that if she could “go back in time and change the whole thing”, she would, adding: “It was never meant to be like that.”
She explained that she had genuinely believed Kim Woodburn was coming onto the show to make amends. “I honestly genuinely thought she was coming on to make amends,” she said, describing the interview as “so shocking” for the panel and insisting she never intended to upset or distress anyone.
During the interview, Coleen became visibly upset, saying: “It’s been the worst week of my life, actually.” Host Holly Willoughby stepped in to comfort her as she expressed confusion over the backlash, insisting she had only said “two things in that interview.”
The ITV star also reflected on her feelings towards Kim, saying she believed she “needed help” and stressing that she felt sympathy for her. “I’ve never called her names or anything. She’s called me every name under the sun, in print and on that show,” she added.
She went on to discuss the online abuse she had received, including messages wishing her death and serious illness, and said she felt the criticism and accusations of bullying were unfair.
“In 50-odd years of doing the job I absolutely love, really love, it’s all I know how to do, there’s a campaign to get me fired,” she added.