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Wednesday, 22 April 2009

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Coleen Nolan: My dad beat me and sexually abused my sister

Loose Women star says Tommy Nolan was a monster

Coleen Nolan was married to EastEnders actor Shane Richie

Coleen Nolan has opened up about her violent childhood.

The Loose Women star, her late mother Maureen, and her siblings were all beaten by her father Tommy.

‘At times dad had been a monster,’ says Dancing On Ice star Coleen. ‘He was a bully and a drunk.

'I knew he’d made mum’s life hell and sexually abused [my sister] Anne. His behaviour repulsed me.

'But I also loved him. Perhaps that shows how unconditional a child's love is.'

Coleen says alcohol turned him into a cruel man.

‘If he’d been sinking the pints he had the shortest fuse in the world and could become aggressive or violent in the blink of an eye.'

But Coleen, 44, says her abuse at the hands of Tommy, who died in 1998 at the age of 73, has made her a better parent.

‘I’m never aggressive and I won’t even row in front of children,’ she writes in autobiography Upfront And Personal.

'No matter how angry I feel I wait until they are out of earshot.’

Coleen is mum to Shane and Jake with ex Shane Richie, 45, and daughter Ciara, 7, with current husband Ray Fensome.

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