'It feels like such a hole...' Coleen Nolan in tears on return to Loose Women following sister Linda Nolan's death
Coleen Nolan got tearful as she remembered her late sister Linda Nolan on her return to 'Loose Women' on Tuesday (04.02.25) telling the panel the death of her sibling had left "such a hole" in her life.
Coleen Nolan broke down in tears on her return to 'Loose Women' as she spoke about her grief for her late sister Linda Nolan.
Linda – who was a member of The Nolans pop group with Coleen and their siblings - was buried at St. Paul's Church in Blackpool on Saturday (01.02.25) after passing away at the age of 65 following a lengthy battle with breast cancer.
Coleen, 59, made her return to ITV daytime show on Tuesday (04.02.25) and when she was asked by fellow panellist Christine Lampard how she was coping following her loss, Coleen admitted she has been having "meltdown moments" as she tries to deal with her grief.
She said: "It’s difficult to say, it's still too soon. You have great moments and then you have absolute meltdown moments and they come out the blue.
"I do know that the one thing is that the funeral – in her pink, shiny coffin … which she picked out on Instagram four months ago … she said, 'If I die, that’s the one I want.'
"It was a beautiful day, if you can say that, for Linda. She would have absolutely loved it, and the weather was beautiful. And more importantly, the turnout from the public … right from when she passed away, the public … people you never met before are sending just the most amazing messages, cards, flowers to the whole family.
"And you probably think, 'They don’t even read it', but we read as many as we can. I can’t tell you how much it means to us. That really helped."
Although Linda's death is still very raw, Coleen was determined to return to work on 'Loose Women' "because life goes on".
She added: "It's just hard. Because there was a time where I thought, 'Do I go back? Is it too soon?' And then … you have to. Because life goes on.
"Linda has had this for 20 years, and I think that the one thing she'd want to say is that she wouldn’t want anybody that was still going through this horrendous disease to go, 'Oh, I may as well give up, because it got her in the end.' Because actually, it wasn't that that got her in the end, she got flu and phenomena."
Coleen – who also lost her sister Bernie Nolan to cancer - described Linda as "a massive force" in the family, and lamented the loss of her sister felt like "such a hole" in their lives.
Coleen said: "She was a massive force in our family, and it feels like such a hole. And because I'm the baby … and then it was Bernie, Linda and then it went up. And now it's me, and then the age gap's quite far.
"We're all still really close but the six of us in the car – you know my sisters and my two brothers – my brother just went, 'And then there were six', and it was just like …
"I was looking at them, and honestly I was like, 'I can’t do this anymore', but you have to. And I know if Linda was here, she'd definitely be on here ['Loose Women'] if I'd gone. She'd be like, 'I'm going back to work!'"
Coleen concluded by thanking her fans for their letters of support and thanking the nurses at the hospital and hospice that treated Linda for their amazing care.
