Coleen Nolan has opened up about the ‘relentless’ trolling the Loose Women panellists receive and claims that the show is a ‘toxic atmosphere’ – which she says is absolute nonsense

Coleen Nolan has slammed claims that Loose Women is a “toxic” environment and believes people are jealous of the show.

Over the years, the ITV lunchtime programme has been slapped with claims that it’s not a pleasant place to work and that some of the panellists create a negative atmosphere. However, Nolan who has been on the programme since 2000 believes that those who make the claims are simply jealous.

In a candid interview, as she celebrates the news that she’s stepping out solo for the first time in her career, Coleen, 58, has admitted that she once left the show due to people behind the scenes. Now, she’s happier than ever after her return.

She told us: “It’s relentless, and I think it’s very sad because it seems to be a lot of women bashing other women. They go on about ‘Oh it’s toxic’, it’s been running for 24 years or something, if it was that toxic, trust me, being the person I am, I wouldn’t be there. I left for a year, years ago, because I wasn’t enjoying it. But that had nothing to do with the panel that was to do with more to do with people behind the scenes at the time. I thought ‘I’m not enjoying this’ and I took a break from it and did other things, the first time I went into Big Brother and all that I took a year out, but since I’ve gone back and those people have moved on, I can honestly say, I don’t know what I’d do without them.

“There is nothing toxic, I wouldn’t be there, you couldn’t sit on that panel and be yourself and have a laugh and have a joke or certainly have a row about something if you didn’t get on. So I think it’s really sad that people feel they have to knock it and that show in particular, the one show that’s so representative of women. You’ve got ages from late 20s up to 83, we cover every topic. I don’t know why they’re so determined to knock it all the time, maybe it’s jealousy.

“The worst thing for me is when they go ‘I don’t even care about them, I don’t care what they do’, I think well you keep mentioning them so they’re obviously really getting to in life. Maybe it is to make them more famous, I don’t know but hand on my heart, do we get on 24/7? No, it’s like my sisters. I turn sometimes and go ‘Shut up, you’re getting on my nerves’, I do that when I’m with my family. They’re as close to me as they could be. I get there and I can’t wait to see them. And we have a laugh and that’s most of the time, we all laugh about it now. You’ve heard me and Ruth, I say things and go ‘Oh sh*t that’s going to be front page, we’re having a feud’ but yeah it’s great, we love it.”

But while her Loose Women co-stars are on tour, Coleen reveals that she had to turn down the opportunity to appear on the panel in various cities due to other working commitments. “I’m filming [The Real] Monty and stuff and just all the dates they kept on giving me, I was like ‘I’m not here, or I’m doing this’, it’s just impossible,” she said.

Coleen is once again taking part in ITV’s The Real Full Monty

Coleen opened up on Loose Women about being diagnosed with skin cancer ( 
Image:
Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Over the course of her time on Loose, Coleen has shared the highs and lows of her life. Most recently, she announced that she had been diagnosed with two forms of skin cancer, both of which were treatable. She said: “When it was announced they actually asked me to and I’ve known for ages, but they actually asked me to announce it because of Full Monty I just kind of started for Monty but I was really shocked about the amount of messages I got the most messages I’ve ever got on anything. It is important to talk about but I felt a bit to me it’s all a bit dramatic. I’ve got a sister whose cancer has gone to her brain. So I just felt a bit embarrassed. Initially, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s all got a bit too much.’ But obviously, it’s there and it’s always an important subject. But yeah, I mean, it’s it’s nothing compared to what my sister is going through.”

The star admits she “laughed” when her dermatologist explained she had skin cancer as she had initially gone to see him over another issue. She explained: “On the way out the door I just went oh could you just check this on my shoulder because I’ve had it for a while and it was the smallest piece of red stained skin but I’d had it for about a year. As soon as I showed him he went ‘That’s basal cell carcinoma you need to come back in’ and I went ‘I thought you were going to tell me it was eczema, and he was like ‘You need to get undressed’ and he checked all of it and then I asked him about dry patches on my face and he said ‘They’re melanoma’ but the shocking and surprising thing is that it’s all from childhood.

“He said everything I’ve got from childhood. That one [on her shoulder] has been treated the carcinoma and touch work that’s gone and then these two [on her nose] have yet to be treated but it’s nothing major. What he said about this is if they don’t treat them then later on in life, that will become a dangerous kind of skin cancer. So I do have to get them treated. And I’m going to go on and have an all-over body. I’m going to go and see another specialist who’s been recommended to me, who literally checks every single piece of skin you’ve got because I want to know because I know you know from being in a family that you’re surrounded by cancer and I do the full monty which is about awareness. I know that catching these things in time is the most effective as scary as it is.”

The singer and presenter praised her older sister, Linda, who is battling incurable brain cancer. Coleen described her sibling as a ‘warrior’ ( 
Image:
Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
Coleen’s older sister, Linda, 64, is currently battling incurable cancer which was in her hip and has since spread to her liver and brain but is remaining positive as she moves forward. Discussing her sister, the presenter said: “Certainly in public [there’s a smile on her face], obviously there’s nights she goes to bed and I only found this out recently but there are nights she goes I think the night times because she’s totally on her own. You know, in your bedroom and your brain, you just overthink and I think they’re the times when she has her cry and and he’s scared you know, but the rest of the time. She is an absolute warrior. I look at her in awe. She treats chemo like she’s going to Tesco and it keeps coming back and battering her and she keeps on smiling and she still keeps getting out of bed and she bloody hates it. She hates it, she hates being bald. I think that for her that’s the most dramatic thing. She’s lost her hair, this is the fourth time and she’s lost it again and then she gets embarrassed and she goes ‘That’s really of vain of me’ and I’m like ‘It’s not’.”

But while Coleen’s struggles may have been made public, the singer and presenter says members of the public have pulled her family through thick and thin. “The vast majority of people out there have literally pulled me and my family through everything and still do,” she gushed before adding: “They’ve pulled me through divorces or they pulled me through meeting someone new or, you know, they’ve always just been it’s always been thanks to the public that we are where we are.

“Our career has always been done to the public, because for some reason, they took us under their wing, and they are just like an extension of our already big Irish family, I know that sounds cheesy but it’s true. I’ve done shows where, you know, you’re voted out by the public, and I’ve been terrible at them like Dancing On Ice. I was terrible but the public kept me in til the semi-finals, the judges wanted me out and week after week, those gorgeous people kept putting me through and I’m like, wow. So I’m always We’re always grateful. And you know, if you have lived your life in the public eye, sometimes it’s hard because sometimes you do want privacy. But you can’t have it always, you just have to take the rough with the smooth, I think sometimes that is hard.”

The Nolans have been a staple piece in British culture since they launched their chart-topping career ( 
Image:
FilmMagic)

Opening up about her finances, Coleen says if she was a millionaire, she would consider taking six months off work – but this is far from a reality for her. The star who lives in Cheshire with her daughter and several animals added: “I have six days off and a bill comes in and I think ‘I better go back to work’, People see you on the telly and think ‘She doesn’t even need to go to work?’ they always think that and I need to go to work as much as the next person, I’ve got a house, I’ve got a mortgage and I’ve got animals.”

The Blackpool-born star continued: “I feel like I’d miss the public if I gave it up tomorrow, I’m a homebody, I’m known for it on Loose Women, I’m not out partying all the time. Even when they go out. Bless them. They always invite me but they know I’m gonna say no. Because I’m a real homebody. I like being at home with my animals. I did take three months off a few years ago, I nearly didn’t come back because I lost all my confidence and then I thought ‘You have to go back, it’s all you know, you’re just going to wither and die if you don’t go back’, because there’s nothing else I can do apart from sing and talk crap on the telly.”

The Nolans often appear on TV together nowadays ( 
Image:
Quest Red)
But one thing that Coleen has never done is tour as a solo artist. Today she announces her Naked Tour and jokes that she may consider getting naked on stage. Speaking about getting on the road, she said: “I’m so excited and terrified all at once. It’s something I’ve never done before, hence why I’ve called it Naked because I think Naked also suggests apart from the very obvious, it also suggests feeling very vulnerable.

“And I do feel very vulnerable but I’m also at a stage now where I’ve always said that singing and performing is really the greatest love of my life is what I’ve done since the age of two. But I’ve never had that but I’ve always been surrounded by family. You know, I’ve always had my sisters when I was very young. I had my Sisters Brothers mum and dad. And then even in presenting you know, I’ve got my other sisters like the Loose Women girls, it’s just always been a group thing. But I guess you know what’s happened to my sisters and Linda now especially as well as losing Bernie I’ve thought it’s one of those moments and feel the fear and do it anyway because I don’t want to get to an age where I think why didn’t I just do it. Because the thought of never performing again scares me more than performing. But am I am I excited? like you wouldn’t believe but equally, I go to bed at night sometimes thinking ‘I’m terrified, I am terrified’.”

But she won’t be alone for too long – her two sons, Shane Jnr and Jake, both singers and lead singers of bands will be heavily involved in the production. She went on to add: “I mean, even when I toured with my sisters, you know, we all took a moment while we’d have a solo each, but then they’d be in the background in harmonies, and then the next song you’d all be together. This is going to be me really alone. I mean, I’ve got a band and I’m going to have two or three backing singers and my son, Shane, is going to be there. He’s performing. He’s kind of like the warm-up and I’m using his band for my section. So I’m kind of still surrounding myself with family to a point. But ultimately I am on that stage on my own. It’s just so scary, it wasn’t scary until today when I’ve started talking about it and it’s like ‘Oh sh*t they’ve taken me seriously and this is happening, I was just having a laugh guys’. But no, I am looking forward to it and I just want everybody to you know, at the moment, the news and life in general is just a bit shit isn’t it? As in you know, everything you hear on the news or certainly on social media. It’s all very depressing and I just feel everyone’s feeling a bit down.”

Coleen’s two sons Shane (left) and Jake (right) will be heavily involved in her upcoming tour ( 
Image:
WireImage)

While her son Jake may have gone on to top the charts as the lead singer of Rixton, who were once managed by Scooter Braun and her son Shane has also enjoyed success as an artist, Coleen admits that while she worried about her three children following in her famous footsteps, there was nothing she could do to prevent them taking on a career in the media.

“It does worry you because I know how hard it is and I know how cutthroat it can be and I know that it’s not always fair,” she said before explaining: “It doesn’t always come down to being talented, you know of which they both are. Sometimes it’s being in the right place at the right time or knowing, you know, to get that initial push. But I think when it’s in your blood as it was with them from quite a young age, there’s nothing you can do about it and who am I to say no, you absolutely shouldn’t when it’s what I’ve done since I was two years old. I don’t think I’d have had much of a say anyway. I think because they’ve grown up with it. They’ve seen all the pitfalls. You know, they’ve seen sometimes when I’ve come home and I’ve been stressed or upset or I’ve auditioned for something and haven’t got it and they’ve seen how it works so they’re the kind of used to it.

“Jake’s going to be the creative of my tour because he’s got such an immense, like just an incredibly creative talent, you know, as well as singing and writing music creatively. He’s just got ideas where I think where the hell did that actually come from? So he was the first one like when I said obviously I knew I wanted Shane involved because me and Shane, you know, we’ve got kind of the same personality and audiences love Shane.” But despite being upbeat about getting on the road, Coleen wants her audience to go on a journey with her.

Whether that be laughing or smiling, she says that there will be parts of the concert which will shock the audience as she opens up about her extreme highs as well as the extreme lows of being in the spotlight since the age of two. One thing she is excited about, however, is the upcoming return of Big Brother.

Despite being excited for the return of Big Brother, Coleen has flat out ruled out a return to the house ( 
Image:
PA)
Nolan appeared in Celebrity Big Brother 10 back in 2012, finishing in second place. However, just five years later, she found herself becoming the winner of Celebrity Big Brother 19. However, she has no desire to return to the house as a housemate – even if she was offered an eye-watering pay cheque.

Reflecting on her time on the programme, she said: “I always thought it’s a good show. I love things that are kind of more even more than physical, like a mental experiment. And that’s what Big Brother is. It’s a psychological experiment. And it’s really fun to watch. Would I ever, someone asked me earlier would you go back in? Absolutely not.

“They literally couldn’t pay me enough to go. They couldn’t pay me enough to go and do it again. But I enjoyed the experience. I think it’s had a long enough break that it’ll be interesting to see it come back now. I also want to phone them all up and go ‘You have no idea how hard it is’ I don’t think anyone does, people always say to me ‘Why is it hard to sit in the house for 24 hours you don’t do anything? It is possibly mentally one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

“[It was] very close to breaking me, completely. 24 hours feels like a week an hour feels like 24 hours. And when I say there is nothing to do. There is nothing to do. There’s no music, there’s nothing to read. There’s nothing to write you don’t know the time you are in a house full of strangers that you would probably never be friends with on the outside. All sleeping together. You know two baths Well, a toilet in the bathroom. Nothing locks. There’s no privacy. You can’t sleep during the day because they wake you up with an alarm. It is mentally a massive challenge. And I don’t think you’ll ever understand it till you’re in that situation.”

Coleen is preparing for her upcoming headline tour

Having previously appeared on Dancing On Ice, Coleen explained she isn’t able to take part on Strictly Come Dancing ( 
Image:
Ken McKay / Rex Features)
One job she would consider is taking over Phillip Schofield on Dancing On Ice. Earlier this year, it was announced that the presenter had quit all roles with ITV after confessing to an ‘unwise but not illegal’ male colleague who was much younger than him. In 2011, Coleen presented one episode of the show alongside Schofield but now says: “I’ll consider anything to be honest with you, yeah, of course, I did present it once when Holly was sick, and I had a great time doing it. I don’t think, annoyingly, they see me for primetime I don’t think. I don’t think I’m, the right shape, size or age for them for primetime which is fine, I’ve kind of got my head around it now. But do I think I could do it? Yeah, I think I could have a right laugh doing it. I couldn’t be ‘Oh my God you’re amazing’, I’d probably be like ‘God that was really bad’, Maybe that’s why they don’t want me? They’d be like ‘No, she’s too honest’, but of course I would but I wouldn’t worry about it because I’ve not been asked, it’s fine.”

Although she loved her time on the programme, it came with its downfall as she claims she’s not able to participate on Strictly Come Dancing because of it. She said: “I’ve never done Strictly which devastates me. Since that show started, I’ve always wanted to do Strictly and so many Loose Women have done it but they never, ever ask me. But it’s because apparently, I did Dancing On Ice, they don’t have anyone who’s done Dancing On Ice on Strictly.

“Had I have known that was the rule, I might not have done Dancing on Ice but they didn’t ask me then either. But yes, Strictly is brilliant but I’ve kind of scrubbed it out of my bucket list because I know it’s not going to happen. However, I still love it and I’m addicted to it. The Loose Women who have done it have said physically, it’s absolutely relentless and exhausting but I love learning to dance, I’d love to learn to dance properly, I’ve never been trained to dance, I’d love to be with a professional and I love music, that would be good but I’m too busy now, I’m organising a tour.”

Coleen will join the likes of Gemma Collins, Paul Burrel, Julia Bradbury, Ben Cohen and her former Loose Women co-star Sherrie Hewson for ITV’s The Real Full Monty. This Christmas, the celebs will be getting their kit off to raise awareness of cancer and the importance of self-checking in order to save lives.

Speaking about getting on stage with the Full Monty team, Coleen beamed as she exclaimed: “I love Full Monty. Every single year I’ve done it, they’ve said ‘This will be the last one’ because it is quite a big show to organise, there’s a lot of people involved in that show and there are weeks and weeks of hard work, we don’t just learn this dance to get our boobs out and go home, I hate that bit by the way, still, this is my fifth one and I still hate that bit. It’s a real commitment to do it, its tiring and they’re long days but it means such a lot to all of us and everyone in it.

“Somehow, whether it’s themselves or relatives like myself has been touched by cancer as has most people and the awareness that it raises every year is insane every year, someone will message saying ‘You’ve saved my life, I found a lump while I was watching the show, I decided to be brave and go to the doctor’, you think ‘Oh my God’, that’s exactly why you do it, it means a lot. Every year I go ‘I’m not doing this again, it’s too hard, I’m too tired and I don’t want to get my boobs out’ – but it’s fabulous and it’s quite liberating.”

Just seconds before the celebs take their kits off, a huge light is shone on the audience to protect their modesty, although Coleen later found out that it doesn’t protect them. While laughing, she said: “I was saying ‘But the audience are going to see my boobs’ and they go ‘they won’t, in that moment we’re going to put a massive light on the audience, so for a few seconds it blinds them’ by which time, when the light’s gone off, you’re covered up – they told me this but last year, my kids came and they went ‘Nah, we did see your boobs’ and my daughter was like ‘I saw Ashley’s willy’ and I was like ‘Brilliant, fabulous’ so this time when they go ‘The light will blind them’, I’ll go ‘Shut up no it won’t’. But it’s a really different vibe this show, even the audience, I’ve never known an audience like it, they’re so on your side, there’s nothing sexual, it’s weird saying it’s a feel-good show because it’s actually, equally it’s a heartwrenching show as well.”

Tickets for Coleen’s Naked… and In The Mood For Dancing Tour are available on her website, here, on September 15.