Coleen Nolan forced off Loose Women with death threats over Kim Woodburn row

Coleen Nolan revealed she was forced off Loose Women in the wake of her jaw-dropping row with Kim Woodburn after being inundated with death threats and vile comments telling her to die of cancer.

Coleen – who lost her sister Bernie Nolan to the disease in 2013 – told the Mirror’s Notebook magazine that she was forced to take a break from the ITV show because of the disgusting messages she received from trolls.

Speaking for the first time about her return to telly since her divorce from Ray Fensome, Coleen opened up about the horrific abuse as she joined panelists Saira Khan and Chizzy Akudolu in their first joint photoshoot.

Considering the show is on the telly five days a week, 52 weeks a year, for over 19 years, our three Loose Women ladies have never done a photoshoot together before.

Chizzy, Holby star and most recent addition to the panel, arrives early, excited to try on the clothes and is the biggest chatterbox known to mankind. Coleen and Saira turn up next together, their arrival marked clearly by an echo of cackles that can be heard from reception. When the three of them start in makeup together, it’s reminiscent of getting ready for a school disco with your friends. Just with bucket loads of bad language.

Since its first episode in 1999, the nation have become warmly familiar with the panel of women who will famously make the toughest interviewees cry, turn male guests into quivering wrecks with nerves and will fess up about literally anything themselves, live on air.

It’s is a bit odd meeting people for the first time but knowing all about their childhood sexual abuse and sexless marriage (Saira), divorces and 50 Shades-inspired sex games (Coleen) and an addiction to love and food, namely fried chicken, (Chizzy). Between them, the panel of 15 regulars have been through it all. Hence why they’re pulling in record breaking figures as they approach their 20th year.

As they gather today for our interview, emergency chairs brought in for Saira, who is so little she was eaten alive by the first chair (‘She’s really tiny, the bitch,’ says an eye-rolling Coleen), the women explain why being so loose has never been so cool.

Love them or hate them, these candid women are here to stay…

How is it having Coleen back?

Saira Khan: We’re all best mates, so if anything happens to your mates you miss them. We all sent our well wishes and waited for her return.

Coleen Nolan: It’s fabulous to be back. I was rugby tackled by this lot in excitement on my first day. Very touching.

Was it a difficult time?

CN: Initially, yes, because everything spiralled. I’d ploughed on with work and hadn’t faced up to my divorce, but when the death threats happened it was a catalyst and it all hit me. I needed to get a grip on my life.

SK: It was a wake-up call to how awful social media can be sometimes too.

CN: You have to be made of steel to not be affected by hurtful comments. But when people were saying things like, ‘I hope you die of cancer like your sister’, it was time to stop.

SK: We all checked in and texted every week. It wasn’t the same without her, but we supported her every step of the way.

But you’re back, and Loose Women is more popular then ever…

CN: It’s because we’ve proved how real we are. And we’ve covered some amazing campaigns. Our body confidence one was massive, it

even shocked us.

SK: I remember watching the show way back and thinking, ‘I can’t really relate to these women.’ But now I don’t think you can say that. We have a wide range of ages, ethnicity, diversity, mothers, those without children, married ones…

CN: Divorced ones, sob. Twice.

SK: But our show is so diverse. Everyone talks about diversity, but we’re actually doing it.

Do people confide in you because they feel they know you?

Chizzy Akudolu: I get people wanting advice all the time online. I do say I’m not qualified and I try to guide people to helplines.

SK: That’s because these people see you as someone who understands how they feel. And that’s better than any doctor that you’ll meet.

CN: People come up and talk to me like they know me and now I realise they don’t. I was worried for a while I had some sort of senile dementia, but it’s just people who know me from the telly. And despite things that have happened recently, the majority of the public have just wanted a cuddle.

SK: But your role on the show is being very motherly.

CN: Hmm, I was hoping you’d say sexy. Motherly. God.

What have been the funniest moments filming?

CN: It’s fun even in the advert breaks. Someone who’s held a burp in for six minutes…

SK: Or I’ll be having a hot flush and I’m pleading with the make-up guy for a quick freshen up.

CN: They deal with a lot of hormonal women.

SK: Those make-up people need an MBE after the state we turn up in the mornings. They’re like surgeons.

CN: Some of the topics are so funny. We can’t ever not laugh if we talk about sex. And Saira is ‘Miss Innuendo’. Then we hear in our ear from the producer, ‘Girls, pack it in.’

Best and worst guests?

CN: The Hollywood stars are the nicest. No entourage. Whoopi Goldberg turned up by herself. I think she took the tube.

SK: You’ll have some reality stars who have been famous for five minutes who turn up with a huge entourage and say, ‘I’m not doing this, I’m not doing that’.

CA: The men are always petrified. They physically shake and they’re sweating. They think we’ll be bitches, but we’re not, we’re just interested in their lives.

CN: One man said to me, ‘I’m really disappointed, you didn’t flirt with me.’

SK: You are the flirter.

CN: I said, ‘Babes, you are 18. It’s wrong on every level!’ I would be trolled if I flirted with a teenager. My friends usually say, ‘I could tell you didn’t like them. It was written all over your face.’ A director we had years ago would say ‘Lose the face’ in my ear way too often.

Worst thing you have ever said on the show?

CA: I said tw*t. And I said fricking. But it sounded like ‘f**king’.

SK: The whole panel just stared at her with looks of horror.

CN: God rest her soul, but I remember Lynda Bellingham screaming out ‘b*ll*cks’ one time. She was so into the story. I nearly fell over. We had to apologise after every ad break.

What’s been your biggest confession on the show?

CN: There’s nothing I haven’t said on TV. I need to learn to shut up. There’s loads to get out of Chizzy yet. The show catches you unawares. You start opening up.

SK: Oh God, you do forget. I’m there telling my mates that I told my husband he can sleep with somebody else and it was front page news for a whole week. That’s when you know you’re relaxed, you don’t think about the audience and the cameras.

CN: It’s much harder now to be completely open because of the PC brigade. I’ve been doing it nearly 17 years, and in the early days your opinion could be whatever your opinion was. But nowadays you can’t always express your opinion.

SK: Many of us have been trolled, but a lot of it gets taken out of context, so we have to be very careful what we say. I personally think it’s a shame. Whether you like it or not, we all have an opinion.

Do your families ever tell you off for oversharing?

CN: Yes. That would explain why I have two ex-husbands!

CA: Yes, I got a telling off when I said I was looking for a man. I said I’d take fast love, slow love, comatose… I shouldn’t have said that.

SK: I think you’re perfect for the show.

CA: Because I’m loose in many ways.

If you do bicker, who is winning the argument?

All: Coleen.

SK: She’s the queen of it. She’s that sarky cow, but she’s funny, so she gets away with it.

CA: She has to get the last word in.

CN: Sometimes just a look will do it.

SK: She gets livid when she’s anchoring and you talk for too long.

CN: I told you, if you see me put my glasses on, you have about 20 seconds.

CA: I wondered why you did that.

CN: Jesus Christ. I just stare at you too. Honestly, sometimes if my eyes could be guns I’d bloody shoot you.

SK: She’s only joking. But I do hate letting her down.

Will you ever quit?

SK: As long as I’m relevant to the crowd, I’ll stay. And as long as I like the panellists.

CA: The day it starts being work, it stops being fun. Like acting, it’s fun.

CN: Everyone has off days, but we genuinely get on.

CA: Do you have a favourite panel you like to be on?

CN: Yep. And neither of you are on it.

SK: She really is charming.

Why do you think Loose Women is more popular then ever?

Col: Because we have covered some amazing campaigns. Our body confidence one was massive, it even shocked us.

Saira: I remember watching the show way back and thinking, ‘I can’t really relate to these women’. But now I don’t think you can say that. We have a wide range of ages, ethnicity, diversity, mothers, those without children, married ones…

Col: Divorced ones, sob. Twice. Saira: But our show is so diverse. Everyone talks about diversity but we’re actually doing it.

Chizzy as you’re the newbie, is there an initiation night out?

Chizzy: I haven’t been invited anywhere yet…

Col: And that’s awkward because you’re not going to be either.

Sa: We only socialise at awards really, we all live all over the place.

Col: If I have free time I don’t want to be going out, I want to be at home cleaning the house.

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