Coleen Nolan: from sleeping in a drawer to hosting a solo tour, this is the Blackpool star's life so far

This week, Blackpool born celebrity Coleen Nolan celebrated her 59th birthday so we thought it would be a great opportunity to look back on her life so far…

Early life

Coleen Patricia Nolan was born 12 March 1965 in Blackpool to Irish couple Tommy and Maureen Nolan. Tommy had presented a radio show in Ireland before the family moved to Lancashire.

She is the youngest of eight children - her siblings being Anne, Denise, Linda, Bernie, Maureen, Tommy and Brian - and Coleen was the only one born in England.

By the time she was born, her family had already launched the Singing Nolans in 1963 - with the original line-up also featuring the parents and the sons - and the group spent many years performing in working men's clubs up and down the country. The five girls still attended Blackpool's St Mary's Catholic College during this time.

Talking about her earliest years in an interview with former Love Island star Scott Thomas for his podcast ‘Learning as I go’, Coleen said: "Apparently when I was born, first thing they said was, 'god I hope she can sing'. I went that would’ve been awkward if I couldn’t have- they also shoved me in a draw because there was no room... it’s not troubled me at all.

"[We lived in a] three bed terraced house in Blackpool, ten of us- imagine. My brothers never saw the bathroom they had to go to the pub so yeah it was very humble, my mum and my dad were quite poor, and that’s why we all were singing, that’s how we made our living really."

Coleen has also been open over the years about how their father, Tommy, was abusive - after he died in 1998, her sister Anne even revealed he had sexually abused her.

Recalling her memories of her dad on Loose Women, Coleen once said: I loved him until he’d had too much to drink and then I found him scary... I do have a bit of a drink phobia. As soon as their personality starts to change I go 'I’ve got to go'. I go back to being that four or five-year-old."

Career in the Nolans

Coleen says she began singing with her family when she was only two years old, but although she made appearances throughout the seventies, she did not officially join the Nolan Sisters until 1980.

In 1973, when Coleen was nine, the Singing Nolans performed at Blackpool's Cliffs Hotel on Christmas Day where they were discovered by a management company who moved the daughters to London, the band then becoming the Nolan Sisters.

In February 1974, nine-year-old Coleen made her first television appearance with her sisters on the 'It's Cliff Richard!' television series, on which she sung the lead on their debut single "But I Do". 

Before Coleen officially joined the Nolan Sisters, the group starred in a variety of popular tv shows and released several non-charting singles between 1975 to 1977. Their first chart breakthrough came in 1978 when their cover album made it to number 3 in the UK album's chart.

Coleen did then appear in the music video for their 1979 hit "I'm In the Mood for Dancing", which reached number three in the UK singles chart.

After she joined the group, the Nolans (as they were now known) had six top 20 singles in the eighties and released eleven albums between 1980 and 2009.

Coleen left the group in 1994 to focus on her children, but returned briefly in 1995 to promote a re-recorded version of "I'm in the Mood for Dancing". She also returned when the group reformed in 2009 and again between 2020-2022.

Career after the Nolans

In 2000, Nolan became a regular panellist on ITV's Loose Women, a role she has maintained on and off still to this day. A year later she presented ITV’s This Morning, a role she continued between 2010-2012.

In 2009 she took part in ITV’s Dancing on Ice and finished fourth, going on to host the spin off show Dancing on Ice: Friday (2010).

Coleen then finished in second place on Channel 5’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2012 and five years later, she entered the Celebrity Big Brother house again and went on to win the show.

Over the past twenty years Coleen has also made appearances on a variety of shows including Never Mind the Buzzcocks (2002), The Wright Stuff (2002, 2003), Celebrity Fit Club (as a participant in 2002 and judge in 2006), The Paul O’Grady Show (2008) and Celebrity Juice (2012).

In 2020, the Nolan sisters starred in two documentaries about their lives, the year later Coleen featured on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and last year, she participated in the The Great Stand Up To Cancer Back off and The Full Monty.

Coleen is currently part the way through her first ever solo tour ‘Naked’: the 16-date tour kicked off in Blackpool on February 9 and is due to end in Swansea on March 28.

Throughout her career, she has also published four autobiography’s, two novels, two fitness DVDs and a non fiction book on beauty.

Relationships

Coleen married Eastenders actor Shane Richie in 1990, and they had two sons: Shane Jr Nolan, 35, - who has joined his mum on tour- and 31-year-old Jake Roche, who is a member of the pop band Push Baby (formerly Rixton of 'Me and My Broken Heart' fame). 

The couple split up in 1997, after Coleen discovered Shane had been cheating, and they divorced in 1999.

Two years later, in 2001, Coleen welcomed a daughter called Ciara, now 22, with her boyfriend musician Ray Fensome, and the pair were married between 2007 and 2018. 

Coleen then met supermarket logistics worker Michael Jones, 59. on Tinder and they went public with their relationship in January 2022 but split up six months later. They got back together again in June 2023 and are now hoping to move house together this year.

Health

Last year Coleen revealed, during an episode of Loose Women, that she had found cancer on her shoulder which ended up being diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma. The mum of three then underwent treatment for this carcinoma, a type of low grade skin cancer, and got the all clear.

In her interview with Love Island Scott Thomas back in February, Coleen also said that she had been diagnosed with pre melanoma which she plans to get treated after her tour ends.

The singer also quit smoking in December 2023 after 40-years. Not only was it Coleen’s birthday this week, it was No Smoking Day the day after, and Coleen issued a public message urging smokers to follow in her footsteps.

The 59-year-old said: "Following a recent health scare, I realised how precious life is and became determined to quit, not just for my own health, but so I can be there fully for my children and grandchildren.

"To anyone out there thinking of giving up smoking, my advice is do it."