Coleen Nolan’s journey into grandmotherhood began with joy and pride but has since become a painful reminder of family rifts and missed milestones. Back in January 2016, she welcomed her first granddaughter, Amelia Rose, into the world when her son Shane Jr. and his then-partner, Emma Kivell, became parents. Coleen described the moment with tears in her eyes, recalling how emotional it was to see her son cradling his newborn daughter. “It was my baby holding his baby,” she said in an interview at the time, overwhelmed with love and the significance of the moment. Just days later, she shared her happiness with the press, calling herself the proudest grandmother and reflecting on how the arrival of Amelia had changed her outlook on life.
But nearly seven years have now passed since Coleen last saw Amelia, the result of a bitter fallout between Shane Jr. and Emma. What began as a hopeful start for two young parents turned into estrangement, leaving Amelia growing up without contact with her grandmother or her father’s side of the family. Friends close to the situation have admitted that Coleen was “on cloud nine” when Amelia was born but that family divisions quickly made things complicated. They described how Shane promised to support Emma as she navigated life as a single mother, yet the relationship soured and eventually fractured completely. The Nolans, once excited to welcome a new generation, were shut out of Amelia’s life.
The bitterness deepened as time went on. In July of one recent year, Emma and her circle of friends were reportedly left appalled when Shane Jr. and his family sent her a “script” of what he and his new girlfriend, mortgage manager Kimberley Sallis, planned to post on Instagram to announce their pregnancy. The message arrived only ten minutes before the announcement went live, leaving Amelia’s mother with no chance to explain the news to her daughter before it became public knowledge. For Emma, it was a cruel reminder of how far the rift had gone. Friends say she felt blindsided and disrespected, and the gesture only widened the gulf between the families.
Coleen herself has remained quiet about the ongoing tensions, refusing to comment publicly when asked about her absence from Amelia’s life. Sources close to Emma, however, claim she has been angered by the contrast between Coleen’s silence about Amelia and her very public excitement over her other grandchildren. In June 2022, Coleen happily announced online that her youngest son, Jake Roche, and his fiancée Georgia were expecting a son. At the gender reveal party, Coleen gushed over the moment Jake fired off a confetti cannon that turned the living room blue. “I couldn’t be more thrilled about having a grandson,” she wrote, beaming with pride. For Emma and her friends, it was difficult to reconcile these glowing statements with the fact that Coleen had once spoken with equal pride about Amelia Rose, a granddaughter she no longer saw.
The complicated family dynamics have played out against a backdrop of upheaval in Shane Jr.’s personal life. After his relationship with Emma ended, he married former Miss Great Britain, Maddie Wahdan, in July 2022 after a six-year relationship. The lavish wedding at Rushton Hall in Kettering was attended by family and friends, but Amelia Rose was notably absent. Photographs of Shane walking down the aisle and posing with his famous parents circulated in the press, underscoring the divide between his life and his daughter’s. Just over a year later, however, Shane and Maddie’s marriage collapsed following reports that he had been unfaithful. By the summer of 2023, Shane was in a new relationship with Kimberley Sallis, who herself has a twelve-year-old daughter.
Coleen’s own history with family strife is well-documented. She married EastEnders actor Shane Richie in 1990, and together they had two sons, Jake and Shane Jr. But by 1997, the marriage had ended in acrimony after Coleen discovered Richie’s affair while he was performing in Grease in Manchester. In her autobiography, she described how she instantly recognized the woman at an after-show party, her instincts telling her what she later confirmed to be true. The betrayal left its mark, and Coleen raised her sons while continuing her career as a singer and television personality.
Today, Amelia Rose is growing up largely without the Nolans in her life. Those close to Emma say the situation has been painful but necessary to shield her daughter from conflict. For Coleen, the absence of contact with her first grandchild is a wound that contrasts sharply with the joy she expresses over her other grandchildren. While she beams at gender reveal parties and celebrates new arrivals in interviews and on social media, the silence surrounding Amelia remains deafening. For fans of Coleen, who have long watched her share her life openly on Loose Women and in interviews, the situation highlights the complexities of family life behind the glamour of show business.
The story of Coleen Nolan and Amelia Rose is not simply one of estrangement, but of the difficult realities that follow when relationships collapse. Love, pride, and joy greeted Amelia’s arrival in 2016, but unresolved tensions and fractured bonds have left Coleen in the agonizing position of being a grandmother from a distance. For now, she continues her career, celebrates the joy of her other grandchildren, and leaves the silence about Amelia to speak louder than any words she might offer. It is a poignant reminder that even in families blessed with fame and fortune, personal heartbreak can linger quietly for years, unseen by the public but deeply felt by those involved.
