Coleen Nolan has said she’s trying to remain positive and look to the future following her split from husband Ray Fensome.
The Loose Women star announced on Wednesday that she’s divorcing husband Ray Fensome after 17 years together.
Just hours after making the statement, she appeared on Loose Women to discuss the split.
Coleen, who has daughter Ciara, 16, with Ray, said: “It’s really sad but I don’t want to cry. It just happens.
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“And instead of sitting here or staying with someone because I’m scared of being alone at 53, I’ve turned it around and said it’s a new chapter and that’s exciting in itself.
“And hopefully for him as well.
“Hopefully now we can go forward, be positive and be great parents to Ciara.”
Coleen told the panel: “It’s been really hard and it’s really raw. We’ve only just filed, really, and he’s only just moved out.”
She said both she and Ray had fought hard to save the marriage but it wasn’t to be and they made the decision to separate for the sake of their “future happiness”.
“I said at the beginning of last year we were having issues but hoped we would sort them,” she said.
“We have really tried. We were never going to just say, ‘We’re having problems, let’s call it a day’. We both tried.
“But it gets to a point where you think, we’ve tried, it’s not working. Life has done that and we can’t get it back together. And for the sake of both of our future happiness, and of our kids, especially our daughter Ciara, it just gets to a point…”
Coleen went on to say that her role as a newspaper agony aunt had influenced her decision as well.
“I get these letters all the time from women in a similar situation and I was giving them advice saying ‘sometimes, when you’ve tried everything, it’s okay, it’s not a failure for both our sakes to move on’. As I was saying it, I was thinking I needed to start listening to my own advice.
“I could say it to them as I wasn’t emotionally attached – but I needed to listen to my own advice.”
Coleen said that the tragic death of her sister Bernie and sister Linda being diagnosed with incurable cancer had also played a part in moving on.
“Some of it, as well, was when Bernie passed away and with Linda, of course, that all those things put things into perspective as well and make you re-address if you’re happy or if your life is happy.
“It’s a lot of factors but hopefully now we can go forward, be positive and be great parents to Ciara.”
Coleen concluded by thanking the Loose Women panel and viewers for being with her over the past year.
“It is sad. I’ve lived my life through this show and I feel like all of you and the viewers sat at home have experienced it with me,” she said.
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“And I couldn’t sit here and lie or let people write things or guess things. I just needed to tell people so we can move on. There are bigger and more important things in the world that we need to concentrate on.”
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