Loose Women panellist Coleen Nolan admitted she feared the worst when her then-fiancé made the comment, before the couple ultimately decided to put themselves first
Loose Women star Coleen Nolan has revealed why her wedding plans took a last-minute U-turn when she married Shane Richie. The presenter tied the knot with the EastEnders actor back in 1990, before the pair called it quits nine years later.
Speaking on the latest episode of Loose Women’s Just Between Us podcast, Coleen and fellow panellist Jane Moore offered advice to listeners facing wedding dilemmas.
Having been married twice before, Coleen warned couples to be prepared to “upset” loved ones when making decisions about their big day, but urged them to stand their ground.
Reflecting on her first wedding, the 60-year-old explained that she and Shane ultimately decided to elope after becoming overwhelmed by other people’s opinions.
After sharing her thoughts on a listener’s bridesmaids dilemma, Coleen said: “Did I have bridesmaids? No – not with Shane, because we eloped. We didn’t tell anyone.
“And the reason we eloped was because we had a big wedding planned, I had my dress and everything, everything was organised and it was huge, but the only people who weren’t asked about any of it were me and Shane.
“My parents took over and his side of the family took over.”
Recalling the moment that proved to be the final straw for the couple, she continued: “My mum said to me one day, ‘You can’t have this person there because auntie Mary – who used to bounce you on her lap when you were 18 months – has to come because she’s a relative’.
“But the girl who was my best friend growing up could only come to the evening? I was like, ‘What the hell?'”
After growing frustrated, Shane suggested a different approach. “I remember he said, ‘I can’t do this’ and of course I thought he meant the whole thing, ‘I don’t want to get married’,” she recalled.
“And he was like, ‘No, I want to get married, I just don’t want to do it like this’.”
The couple then secretly went ahead with their plan to elope by telling family they were heading to Florida on holiday.
“[We] came back and told them,” she added. “And then we had a blessing about three years later.”
Coleen and Shane share two sons together, Shane Nolan and Jake Roche, while the Loose Women star also has a daughter, named Ciara, with her second husband Ray Fensome.
The former couple married in 2007 but split a decade later, with Coleen admitting she had “[fought] with every fibre of her being” to make the marriage work.
Coleen recently confirmed she is single, following her split from supermarket logistics worker Michael, who she met on Tinder in 2021.
Announcing the news in December last year, she told OK! Magazine: “We’ve decided that we would rather just stay friends, take it as a friendship. And, you know, it’s nothing to do with anyone else, it’s nobody’s fault.
Source: Mirror
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