A biography for Coleen Nolanhasn’t been written yet.
“Yes, I could get cancer, but I'm just going to try to enjoy life as much as possible and not get hung up on relationships or marriages not working.”
“To see your mother beaten by your father is something you never forget. It's horrific. When my dad was like that, I hated him, and he scared me. But sadly it became a way of life for us.”
“Despite our alarming frankness about most things, women seem to clam up about personal health.”
“I used to phone my mum and dad up when I first moved away from home, I didn't even know how to put an oven on, let alone pay the bills.”
“99 per cent of the comments I get on social media are so lovely, from lovely, intelligent humans, but sadly it's that one per cent that stays in your brain.”
“I'd like to have enough money so I could have the chance to retire early, but then so does everybody.”
“I often wish my mum was still alive so I could ask her if she worried about me as much as I worry about my kids.”
“I can't stand divas of any kind.”
“I think there can be a tipping point in relationships with a big age gap when the older partner finds themselves in a very different stage of life.”
“One of my sons started using meditation apps and it changed his life in so many positive ways.”
“Sands are a wonderful organisation who support anyone who has lost a baby before, during or shortly after birth.”
“When I started dating again, the best thing about it was that I'd got to a place in my life where I felt happy in myself and on my own. I didn't need a man, but I felt open to another relationship.”
“When someone so close to you dies, you do think of your own mortality.”
“I know some couples who are the same age, but one partner seems much older because of how they look at life.”
“When my first marriage ended, I felt like such a failure.”
“Writing fiction is brilliant because you can totally exaggerate everything and not have to worry about legal issues.”
“Having children tests even the strongest of couples because it changes everything forever. For the most part, these changes are positive, but there are certain aspects of parenthood that are hard and put your relationship under pressure - sleepless nights and having far less time alone together are just two of them.”
“Be aware that wherever you are in the world, your fears and problems will still be there if you haven't dealt with them.”
“Grief takes a long time to process and it's different for everyone.”
“There are of course age-gap relationships that have proved a big success - take the late Barbara Windsor and her husband Scott, who were blissfully happy for many years.”