Coleen Nolan broke down in tears during her emotional return to Loose Women today, just days after her sister Linda’s funeral.
The 59-year-old presenter had been absent from the ITV daytime show since Linda’s death on January 15, aged 65.
The sisters formed iconic girl band The Nolans, later the Nolan Sisters, in 1975 and became one of the world’s best selling girl groups.
On Saturday, Linda’s funeral service was held at St Paul’s church in Blackpool where her surviving sisters, Anne, 74, Denise, 72, Maureen, 71, Bernie, 52, and Coleen.
Hundreds gathered to pay their respects, including celebrities and local residents, with the service taking place in the same church where Linda had exchanged her wedding vows in 1981.
Actor and comedian Shane Richie, Coleen’s ex-husband, was among other famous mourners who gathered to pay their respects.
Tuesday’s show was Nolan’s first show since her sister’s death
ITV
Speaking on Tuesday’s programme, Coleen became visibly emotional as she discussed how the family were coping following Saturday’s funeral service.
When asked by Christine how the family were doing, Coleen said they were “doing great” but admitted they have “absolute meltdown moments, which come out the blue.”
The star struggled to hold back tears as she thanked the public for their messages of support. Discussing her return to work, Coleen spoke candidly about her internal struggle with the timing.
“It’s just hard. Because there was a time I thought ‘do I go back, is it too soon?'” she shared, her voice breaking with emotion.
Coleen Nolan became emotional as she discussed Linda
ITV
“And then I thought ‘you have to’. Because life goes on,” she continued.
She reflected on her sister’s long battle with illness, saying: “Linda’s had this [cancer] for 20 years and I think the one thing she wouldn’t want anybody that’s still going through this horrendous disease to go ‘oh, well I might as well give up because it got her in the end’.”
Coleen revealed that it wasn’t cancer that claimed her sister’s life in the end.
“She got pneumonia, which actually was you know, what she went from,” she explained through tears.
“She was such a massive force in our family and it feels like such a hole,” Coleen then shared, her voice breaking.
Linda had battled cancer since her initial breast cancer diagnosis in 2005, receiving the all-clear in 2011 before the disease returned, eventually spreading to her hip bone, pelvis and brain.
Nolan spoke candidly about her grief journey to her Loose Women co-stars
ITV
In perhaps the most poignant moment of her return, Coleen shared a heart-wrenching car journey with her siblings following the funeral.
“The six of us were in the car – you know, my sisters and two brothers – and my brother just went ‘and then there was six’,” she revealed.
