Inside Coleen Nolan's love life – EastEnders affair, catfish accusation and Tinder toyboy

Many viewers will know her for her unfiltered opinions on Loose Women alongside her fellow panellists over the years.

Coleen Nolan – who celebrated her 58th birthday today (March 10) – helmed the popular ITV show for more than 20 years when she joined the show as a regular panellist back in 2000.

But despite her impressive success in her TV career, the mum-of-three has had her fair share of difficult relationships in the past.

The brunette beauty has been married twice in her life, once to EastEnders star Shane Ritchie and once to musician Ray Fensome, but now the beloved TV start has recently began a new relationship with her new boyfriend Michael Jones.

As she kickstarts her birthday celebrations, the Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside her love life over the years.

Shane Ritchie

Back in the mid 90s, Coleen and Shane were one of Britain’s die-hard power couples after the pair shared their blossoming romance with the world on a regular basis.

The two lovebirds first met back in 1986 but it didn’t take long for the soap actor to take things to the next level, as just four years later the couple tied the knot after they eloped during a last-minute ceremony back in 1990.

They then went on to welcome two sons – Shane Jr Nolan, 32, and Jake Roache, 28, however the pair went on to renew their vows at a small ceremony just a few years later when Coleen’s father fell ill.

But unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be as the pair decided to part ways just seven years into their marriage.

It was later revealed that the pair had engaged in extra-marital affairs as the brunette beauty shared her first suspicions of the I’m A Celebrity star’s deception in her 2009 autobiography.

The presenter first discovered red flags while the actor was performing in a production of Grease in the heart of Manchester.

She told her readers: “At the after-show party I can distinctly remember examining this one girl.

“There were loads of people there but she just stood out. She had really long dark hair and was wearing a skin-tight white dress.

“Well, it must have been female intuition because that turned out to be the girl Shane had an affair with.”

And the star confessed to cheating with his co-star Claire Taylor in his own memoir Rags to Richies.

But he wasn’t the only one who broke his wedding vows, as Coleen admitted to a brief fling with a keyboard player while she was on tour with the Nolan Sisters in 1993.

The doting mum opened up about she felt “unattractive and non-existent” after the birth of her second child at the time, and couldn’t help but hook up with the musician during her stint in Weymouth with her band.

She wrote: “As I kissed my musician, it was like a sexual awakening. Adrenalin was pumping through my body.

“I knew what I was doing was terribly wrong, but I was literally shaking with exhilaration. ‘I am still attractive,’ I thought to myself.”

But after the adrenaline of her wild night out wore off, the TV star was consumed with guilt and described the incident as “one of the most horrendous times of my life.”

Despite their messy break up at the time, the loving parents have been able to put the past behind them and now share a healthy relationship as co-parents and support each other’s new relationships.

They later went on to settle their divorce out of court as Shane credited Coleen with making sure they kept things cordial for the children.

Shane said at the time: “I wish I could take credit for it, but Coleen instigated most of that. The only people who lost out were the lawyers. They were gutted.”

Ray Fensome

After the power couple went their separate ways, Coleen went on to fall madly in love with famous guitarist and all-round musician Ray Fensome.

The happy couple welcomed daughter Ciara into the world on 19 June 2001 with the new dad getting down on one knee just a few years later in 2005.

They went on to husband and wife in November 2007 but their relationship didn’t last forever as the former couple announced their split in February 2018 after two years of marital struggles.

Although their divorce was finalised later that year, the pair have been able to remain close friends and even spend time with each other’s new partners.

Coleen’s new boyfriend Michael has even arranged a lad’s day out with his girlfriend’s ex-husband as he opened up about their friendship to OK! Magazine.

“We get on well,” he explained. “We spent Christmas Day together. I think we’re going to a rugby match together next month!”

Tinder Toyboy

After leaving another long-term relationship, the ITV star decided to start dating online as she struck lucky on the popular dating site Tinder.

And although she kept his name out of the papers, the loving mum couldn’t help but update her loyal legion of viewers about her dating antics on Loose Women.

The former singer explained how she enjoyed a six-month romance with a mystery lover eight years younger than her shortly before she met her new man, Michael.

Despite their relationship “all going really well”, the pair eventually called time on their relationship when her 47-year-old toyboy confessed he couldn’t “handle” her fame.

The TV star confessed to MailOnline last year: “We met a couple of times before lockdown but then spoke constantly for six months, and it was all lovely and then just as the restrictions eased, he couldn’t handle who I was.

“I think to be fair to him, there’s no animosity and I wasn’t heartbroken. We weren’t in a full relationship, it was literally a vocal relationship, that’s all it could be because of lockdown.”

And he wasn’t the only person who was intimidated by her fame, as many of her potential suitors on the app assumed that they were being catfished by someone pretending to be her online.

She told viewers of Loose Women at the time: “A lot of them thought I was catfishing them and it wasn’t me. They said, ‘Why would you be on here?’ and I thought, ‘Why wouldn’t I be? Where else am I going to go?’

“But here’s my issue – how do I know it’s the real them?”

Michael Jones

Luckily, Coleen wasn’t single for long as she soon stumbled upon current partner Michael Jones on the dating app during the summer of 2021.

After keeping her latest relationship out of the news for the past eight months, the TV presenter finally introduced her new partner to the world as they appeared on Loose Women together.

The happy couple first met on Tinder where they quickly went on to meet up for a date which lasted more than six hours, and it’s fair to say the pair have been going from strength to strength ever since.

And it appears the pair have been getting serious during their whirlwind romance as they confessed they’ve already spoken about the possibility of marriage at some point in the future.

Michael currently works in logistics for a supermarket and also has a 20-year-old son from a previous relationship.

The 57-year-old admitted that initially he was weary about swiping right on Coleen when he first saw her on the app.

He told OK! Magazine: “It was a bit of a dilemma. You think, ‘Am I just swiping because I recognise her?

“So I had to think about it and do it for the right reasons – not even for one minute thinking she’s reply anyway.

“The surprising thing for me was that once I’d swiped we were a match straight away, which meant that she’d already liked me.”

Meanwhile, it was actually Coleen’s fellow Loose Women star Brenda Edwards who helped pick Michael out of the batch of potential partners on the app as the pair “swapped phones” to find dates for each other.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk