‘it’s hard right now’

Having been part of the panel on and off for over 20 years, Coleen Nolan is practically part of the furniture at Loose Women. Loved by viewers for her wit, humour, down-to-earth personality and openness when it comes to sharing details of her life, Coleen, 59, is the epitome of what the show is all about.

And when we catch up with her, it’s clear that Loose Women has a special place in Coleen’s heart and that she has no plans to leave any time soon, despite having other career goals – including a TV ‘programme with animals’.

Here, the star, who is currently on tour, opens up about her fellow panellists, how she’s coping with her youngest, Ciara, being away travelling and how things are going with her logistics worker boyfriend, Michael Jones…

Hi Coleen! What made you decide to do a solo tour?

It was after [Coleen’s sister] Linda’s re-diagnosis, where her cancer had spread to her brain. You just start to evaluate life a bit more and I thought, ‘What will I regret if I get to that stage?’ And performing was top of the list. I kept putting it off, saying, ‘Oh, I’ll do it next year.’ And it was Linda actually going, ‘No, do it now because Bernie [their sister, who died of breast cancer in 2013], thought she was going to tour the following year, and we didn’t because she got ill.’

Is there anything else on your bucket list?

I’d love to do a programme with animals, I’m animal crazy. I think that would be my dream job. I would get out of bed every day and look forward to it. But equally, I love Full Monty [Coleen presents ITV1’s The Real Full Monty, which raises awareness around cancer], so I’d love to do more things like that and I’d love to do some documentaries. I love learning about stuff and finding things out. I’d like to push myself a bit more in TV.

Would you leave Loose Women?

I absolutely adore Loose Women, it’s my second home. So I wouldn’t like to lose Loose Women because I love it, but I’m open to anything, TV-wise.

Who are you closest to on the show?

I genuinely like them all. I think the ones I would stay in touch with even if I wasn’t doing Loose would be Ruth – Ruth’s like my gal – Brenda, Jane’s a good friend, Janet, Judi, they all are really! They’re all fabulous. There are some that I get on great with at work, but maybe if we didn’t do that job... But I