Politics
Coleen Nolan told she needed a gastric band if she wanted a TV career saying she was ‘too fat for primetime’
LOOSE Women star Coleen Nolan has revealed TV bosses told her she needed a gastric band and to lose weight if she wanted a successful career on the box.
The presenter, whose weight has fluctuated over the years, says she was also warned that an evening show on prime television might also be out of her reach because of her age.
Coleen Nolan has told how she was asked to get a gastric band to keep her slim for primetime TV[/caption]
Coleen, 55, said: “I have had a head of a big TV company saying: ‘if you want to get in prime time television you should get a gastric band, you’re too big to present prime time.’
“I’ve had: ‘oh, you’re getting on a bit now, so maybe you’re not right for prime time.’
“And yet you see all these guys in prime time, some overweight, some certainly in their 60s and 70s.
“There don’t seem to be any women of a certain age or a certain size in prime time.
Coleen’s weight has fluctuated over the years, pictured in at the TV Choice Awards in 2008[/caption]
“It’s better than it was years ago, but equally, if you look at Loose Women, there isn’t another show on any channel that has that range of women all at once presenting a TV show.”
Speaking at A Girls Night In with Melanie Blake, a live online event to launch the best-selling author’s raunchy new novel Ruthless Women, Coleen also confessed her worries over the eight-year age gap between her and her mystery boyfriend.
The pair met online, after Coleen had been single for more than three years.
The star, who is considering a double mastectomy, said: “This new guy I’m meeting, my whole issue with him has been that I’m older.
Coleen, pictured on Celebrity Big Brother in 2017, says she was told she was ‘too fat for primetime TV’[/caption]
The honest star praised Loose Women for reflecting women of a certain age and weight, pictured here in 2017[/caption]
“It’s not an issue for him at all, but it’s been a thing for me and I’ve really had to get my head round it.”
Coleen, who has two sons Shane Jr and Jake from her first marriage to EastEnders star Shane Richie, split from her second husband musician Ray Fensome in 2017. They share daughter Ciara, 20.
Coleen admitted that her career success caused issues in their relationship.
Coleen Nolan with Dancing On Ice partner Stuart Widdall in 2009[/caption]
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She said: “I think he found it very difficult that I was the main breadwinner.
“He was the stay-at-home parent, he was a musician, so went and did gigs.
“But the majority of the time he was a stay-at-home parent with our daughter and when the boys were younger.”
