Coleen Nolan on her career struggles and why she feels guilty
Having been in the public eye since she was a child, Coleen Nolan is well aware of the pros and cons of being a star. And while there’s no denying that there are many plus sides to fame – with Coleen saying, ‘In the grand scheme of things it’s bloody brilliant’ – she’s also now opened up about the downsides of her decades-long career.
Revealing how her childhood was affected by being part of The Nolans at such a young age, Coleen, 59, said, ‘When I was nine or 10, there were times that I didn’t want to go [on tour]. I was obsessed with horses so I wanted to go and be at the stables with all my friends, mucking out. I remember at seven I cried because all my friends were joining the Brownies but we had to go to Scotland to perform. I cried because I really wanted to join the Brownies and I couldn’t.’
Feeling the pressure
Reflecting on her younger years, Coleen added, ‘I feel really guilty saying I lost out on a childhood because, equally, when some of my friends were 15 and 16 they’d never left Blackpool and I was going to Japan, Australia, Singapore, travelling around. But did I miss out on a normal childhood? Yeah.’ And this is something she’s taken into her parenting, as she confessed, ‘I think it changed me when
I became a parent because I was determined that my kids were going to go to school. I hardly went to school because we were always working, we’d get in at four in the morning.’
Coleen’s two sons, Shane, 35, and Jake, 31, both work in the showbusiness arena. But Coleen has revealed how her youngest, daughter Ciara, 22, didn’t want to go down that route, despite it being something of a family tradition.
‘My kids felt very under pressure, well certainly Ciara did,’ Coleen said. ‘The boys wanted to be in the industry. Ciara never did, but she felt under pressure to be because she’s got a really great voice, she can write really great songs and I kept being like, “Get in there, write some more songs, record this, do this.” Eventually she turned round and went “I don’t want to.”’ Admitting her guilt over pressuring her daughter to follow in her footsteps, the Loose Women star added, ‘I know I did a lot of things.
I grew up thinking “I’m never gonna say to my kids what my mum used to say to me” and then all of a sudden yo
