Loose Women star Coleen cites her busy lifestyle and juggling work while settling into her home as the reason for the relationship with Michael Jones ending

Coleen Nolan is embracing being single again after splitting from her partner of three years by throwing herself into life on her new farm.

The Loose Women favourite recently parted ways with supermarket logistics worker Michael Jones.

She cites her busy lifestyle, juggling work with settling into her home, was the reason for the relationship ending. And while breaking up was sad for the mum of three, she says the pair ended things on good terms. Coleen, 59, reveals: “We’ve decided that we would rather just stay friends. It’s nothing to do with anyone else, it’s nobody’s fault.

“But I’m really busy and when I’m not really busy with work I’m busy on the farm and I feel personally that I can’t give time to everything. We still get along great and hopefully we can continue to be friends, who knows?” This isn’t the first time Coleen has stayed pals with an ex – she counts former husbands actor Shane Richie and musician Ray Fensome among her best friends.

She tells our sister title OK! magazine: “I think that comes from age and experience. With it being my 60th next year, I think ‘I haven’t got time, life’s too short’. I mean, I hope I have lots of time. But I’m not 20 any more, I don’t want to wait for two years and see what happens. I’m not going to say it wasn’t sad, because of course it was. But I really hope that once that sadness goes away we can continue to be friends.”

Coleen, who found fame in the 1980s singing in the girl group the Nolan Sisters with her siblings Maureen, Anne, Belinda, Linda and Bernie, has no regrets over her romance with Michael, who she met in 2021.

She says: “It was fabulous. Michael came along at just the right time for me and I think over the last three and a half years we’ve helped each other grow. I always choose to focus on the times that were great, not the sad ending. The last two years of both my marriages were probably horrendous, but equally the 10 years before were fantastic.”

Coleen Nolan and daughter Ciara Fensome ( 
Image:
OK! Magazine / David Cummings)
Her new six-acre property in Staffordshire is a rather big focus at present, as is realising her dream of owning a real farm. bColeen recalls: “Even when I was little and I was with my sisters, Dad would say to me, ‘You just need to be on a farm, you need to be with animals’. I can still hear him saying it.”

Now she spends three to four hours a day mucking out and feeding the animals – they have three horses, five dogs, six cats, five ducks, two cockerels, four hens and five pygmy goats – and finds huge freedom in it. She says: “It’s just a wonderful feeling, it really is my happy place. The best thing about it is, the animals don’t care whether I’ve got make-up on, or what I’m wearing. As long as I’m giving them food, letting them out or taking them for a walk, they don’t care about anything else.

“Because I’m in an industry that is fabulous, but also means you’re judged by everything you do, being on the farm where nothing matters and no one is judging me is a wonderful feeling. Coleen shares the farm with her daughter Ciara, 23, and Ciara’s fiance Max, who live in what used to be a separate Airbnb place on the plot.

Coleen and Ciara love being neighbours ( 
Image:
OK! Magazine / David Cummings)
And the star is delighted to have them so close by. She says: “If I had to have neighbours, they’d be the ones I’d want. Although I think they think I’m the local Tesco Express because Ciara will come up and leave with a Tesco bag of whatever she’s found in my fridge. But then she’s like my local restaurant because I’ll go up there for my dinner and then come home again.

“So I can’t really complain when she comes and steals the ingredients.” Coleen has two older children, Shane Jnr, 36, and Jake, 32, from her marriage to her first husband, EastEnders actor Shane, 60, while Ciara’s dad is Coleen’s second husband, Ray. Her daughter also cherishes the farm, saying: “I’m absolutely loving living here. It went from a house to a home within a couple of days.

“We’re actually living my dream life, too, and I’m so grateful. I couldn’t be more proud of her. I look out my window in the morning and can see the horses and it’s the best feeling.” Next year is a big one for Coleen. As well as turning 60 in March, she will also celebrate 25 years of being on Loose Women, as she joined the ITV programme in 2000, during its first year of being on air.

Getting ready for the festive season ( 
Image:
OK! Magazine / David Cummings)The panel show has taught her a lot over that time, she says. She continues: “My whole life has changed since then. I’ve lived my life on Loose Women and equally I’ve learnt a lot and I’ve grown a lot. When I think back to my opinions on certain things 24 years ago compared to my opinions now, they’re so different. I look back sometimes and think, ‘Why would I have ever thought that?’

“But I was in my early 30s when I started, and now I am nearly 60. I’ve had kids who’ve taught me so much, life has changed and the world has changed. I’m so much more confident now in who I am.”

While she wouldn’t change anything about her time, the only thing Coleen doesn’t enjoy so much now is how “restricted” panellists are. She says: “Back then, you could say what you wanted, and while people might not have agreed with you, it didn’t mean you were ‘cancelled’ or never going to work again. Now we have to be really careful, and edit ourselves.”

The star helped support Loose Women pal Ruth Langsford after she split from husband Eamonn Holmes in May, and is “in awe” of how Ruth handled the situation. She says: “She’s such a dignified lady and she looks the best she’s ever looked, in my opinion. bShe’s a trooper, and I’ll always be there for her.”

And although she rules out following Loose Women’s Jane Moore into the I’m a Celebrity jungle, Coleen – who won Celebrity Big Brother All Stars vs New Stars in 2017 – does have a new TV project in mind. She reveals: “I’d much rather do a reality show about life on the farm. That’s the next big dream.”