Coleen Nolan has opened up about her heartache following her split from Shane Richie (Image: Getty Images)

Coleen Nolan has opened up about the heartache she felt over a specific reqeuest made by ex-husband Shane Richie in the aftermath of their split.

TV personality Coleen was married to EastEnders actor Shane Richie and shares sons Jake and Shane Jr with him. The couple’s marriage ended in 1997 however, after Coleen discovered Shane had had an affair.

While he was working in Manchester, Coleen began to suspect something was amiss. As Shane portayed Danny Zuko in Grease at the time, he had left Coleen and the kids in the south of England.

In her 2009 autobiography, as reported by The Mirror, Coleen recalled: “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.”

On Loose Women: The Podcast, Coleen responded to a listener’s concern about their ex taking children on holiday with a new partner, reports Lancs Live. She shared her own painful experience when Shane wanted to take their young sons away with his new partner.

Coleen with sons Shane Richie Jr and Jake Richie in 2009 (Image: Shirlaine Forrest, WireImagevia Getty Images)
She explained: “It happened to me, I remember when me and Shane first split up and obviously, he was with the girl that we had split up because of, and it was about six months, about a year down the line and he wanted to go to Florida with her and the boys. They hadn’t even met her at this point.

“So I arranged for the boys to meet her with me, and she came to the house, and we chatted. Obviously it hurts you, it hurt me, you’re thinking, ‘what if my kids end up falling in love…because she’s going to be the good guy and she’ll spoil them because she wants them to love her and all of this’.

“But then I thought, ‘A, it doesn’t matter what she does, they’ll never love her as much as they love me, I’m their mum’.

“And secondly, I don’t want the boys to feel guilty and feel guilty going, that they’ve betrayed me. I saw them looking at me like, I knew they really wanted to go to Disney but they’re looking at me and I’m like, ‘No, you’re going to have the best time’.

Coleen has three children, Jake, Ciara and Shane Jr (Image: Coleen Nolan/Instagram)

“Don’t get me wrong, they went off, cried my eyes out, fine. What I did is I took myself away for two weeks with a friend, I went and had a lovely time kid free, and it was great.”

After parting ways with Shane, Coleen found love again with musician Ray Fensome, with whom she shares daughter Ciara. They tied the knot in 2007 but ended their marriage in 2018.

Shane, on the other hand, wed Christie in 2007. The couple resides in Surrey and are parents to Mackenzie Blue, Lolita Bell and Romani-Skye.