INTERVIEW
The Loose Women star talks to Closer about her first tour in 15 years, putting her health first and whether she’s planning wedding number three
Speaking to her in the middle of her first live tour in 15 years, Coleen Nolan is in the mood for dancing. Her first ever solo show, Coleen Nolan: Naked, has got her year off to a flying start and she’s showing no signs of slowing down. And she tells Closer that things are moving quickly with her new partner, Michael Jones, how she’s rediscovered her love of performing and why she’s finally kicked her 40-year smoking habit.
Coleen, 58, has a spring in her step, and that’s largely due to her rekindled romance with Michael – a man she met on Tinder in January 2022 and split from three months later before reuniting in 2023. Now he’s by her side on tour, he’s officially moved in, and they have started thinking about their next steps.
OPEN MIND
Could that mean wedding number three? “Before I met him and after my second divorce, I said absolutely 100 per cent no way,” Coleen tells Closer. “I was always open to meeting someone because I love having someone there, but it was like, ‘No, I’ll never get married and I’d only want to see someone twice a week,’ blah blah. Now he’s moved in with me and it’s never say never.” Coleen has been married twice before –
On stage with son Shane first to Shane Richie between 1990 and 1999, with whom she has two sons, Shane, 35, and Jake, 31, and then to Ray Fensome between 2007 and 2018, with whom she has a daughter, Ciara, 22 – but she plans to keep an open mind in this new relationship. She says, “I’m deciding that I’m not going to worry about the future and I’m really training myself to live in the present day. I never thought I’d be living with someone again, but I am!”
FAMILY AFFAIR
She’s not only living with Michael, but she’s working with him too as he’s part of the team on her show. It turns out – much like Coleen’s start in life as one-fifth of the girl band The Nolans – the whole production is a family affair. “I’ve got Shane [her son] supporting me, Jake my other son directed it, I’ve got my ex-husband [Ray Fensome] on guitar, I’ve got my new partner [Michael] selling the merchandise and I’ve known most of the band since they were kids. It’s like a big family going out really,” the Loose Women star reveals. “It’s been fabulous.”
While Coleen is used to performing with family, this time around she’s been sharing the stage with her son instead of her sisters. She says, “He goes out in the first half because he’s my support act and he absolutely smashes it, so I’m in the dressing room going, ‘Come off now because I need to follow that and they’re already up dancing!’ Then coming out afterwards I always sign autogr
