Coleen Nolan often discusses her past relationships on Loose Women

EastEnders star Shane Richie has appeared to take a light-hearted swipe at his ex-wife Coleen Nolan in a new interview.

The former couple were married from 1990 to 1999 and share two sons together, Shane Nolan, 36, and Jake Roche, 32.

Though Shane, 61, says he and Coleen are “still good friends”, he doesn’t seem to be a fan of her discussing him on Loose Women.

Coleen, 60, has been an on-off panellist on the show since 2000. As part of the open chat show, she and her co-stars have shared many anecdotes about their personal lives.

In Coleen’s case, she has often discussed her relationships, including her former marriages to Shane, and second husband Ray Fensome.

Quizzed on whether he watches his ex on the ITV show, Shane aimed a cheeky jibe at Coleen’s on-air relationship revelations, as he told Bella Magazine: “I only watch Loose Women to see what I’m up to, and you can quote me on that.”

Shane Richie and Coleen Nolan were married for nine years

Pressed further on their co-parenting relationship, he went on to say: “We met when she was 21 and I was 22, and we were mates.

“We just grew up together and we still are good friends. We’ve got two great kids together and now we’re both grandparents.”

In a recent episode of the Loose Women podcast, Coleen reflected on an emotional time following her split from Shane.

After a podcast listener wrote in to say that their ex-husband wanted to take their children away with his new flame, Coleen said she knew how this felt.

“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,” she revealed.

“So I arranged for the boys to meet her with me, and she came to the house, and we chatted.

Shane Richie says he’s still ‘good friends’ with ex-wife Coleen Nolan

“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’.”

Recalling what she then realised at the time, she added: “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’.”

While she gave her approval for the trip, Coleen admits she “cried [her] eyes out” when they left.

To stay distracted at the time, she spent those two weeks with a friend and had “a lovely time”.

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30am on ITV and ITVX.