WE’RE all familiar with The Strictly curse, but it seems that Loose Women could be under the same unlucky in love spell.
Birds of a Feather star Linda Robson, 65, yesterday confirmed that she’s going her separate ways from husband Mark Dunford after 33 years of marriage, saying “enough is enough.”
But she’s not the only one on the panel to have suffered marriage problems – with Coleen previously splitting from husband Ray Fensome after spending months trying to save her marriage of ten year and Janet Street-Porter regretting two of her four marriages.
So, who else has fallen victim to the curse?
Coleen Nolan
Coleen wed Shane Richie in 1990, but they went on to divorce in 1999 after she discovered the devastating news of her ex-husband Shane Richie’s affair in a phone call from his mistress’s mum.
Speaking on Loose Women, she recalled: “After two years of finding things out and getting back together, the thing that got me was when the girl he was seeing’s mum phoned and said, ‘Do you know where Shane is?’”
After replying that he was on a work trip, the woman replied: “No, he’s on holiday with my daughter.”
Coleen, who shares two sons Shane, 27, and Jake, 24, with the EastEnders actor, added: “I was so calm. It was that instant moment when I thought that’s it. My heart shut down.”
She then tied the knot to Ray Fensome in 2007, but the pair went their separate ways in 2018 after ten years of marriage, with Coleen describing the end of their relationship as “hellish.”
“Me and my husband Ray are divorcing.
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“There is too much dividing me and Ray. We can’t go back. And my future is going to be very different to the one I’d imagined back then,” she wrote in the Daily Mirror.
She added: “I deserve to be happy. Everyone does. And once you know your marriage is truly dead you need to make your peace with that, bury the past and move on.
“After 17 years together that’s what I’m about to do.”
Janet Street-Porter
The 76-year-old first married Tim Street-Porter in 1967, before divorcing him in 1975.
She then went on to tie the knot with Time Out founder Tony Elliott later the same year, but her second marriage only lasted two years.
After wedding her third husband, documentary film maker Frank Cvitanovich, in 1979, she again divorced him two years later, before marrying David Sorkin in 1997.
But, keeping with the same pattern, she divorced him two years later, too.
During an episode of Loose Women, Janet admitted her first husband, who she’d been married to for six or seven years, caught her cheating with another man.
“I was having an affair and he tracked me down to this cottage in the New Forest,” she recalled.
“There was a knock on the door… luckily I had all my clothes on and he said: ‘Right I know what you’ve been up to we wont discuss it if you get in the car in three minutes and we’ll drive to London and no more will be said about it.'”
The journalist also revealed she had cold feet ahead of two of her weddings, but it was too late.
“I’ve had cold feet, but after the wedding,” she explained, during an episode of the ITV talk show.
“I’ve had it twice. Once with my second wedding, I really, really adored my husband, we lived together for two years.
“But I think the wedding was just an excuse for a really good party, we had an excellent party, loads of friends came and we had a fantastic time.”
However, the next morning as Janet got up to clean her kitchen floor, it hit her that they shouldn’t have made things official
She explained: “I turned to him and said ‘well that was a mistake’. Within 24 hours and he said ‘I agree’.
“I said ‘we were such great friends, exactly the same age, why on earth did we get married?’”
Unbeknown to Janet, she was about to experience that same feeling with her fourth marriage.
She said: “The only other time I had that was obviously number four, but as it was happening at 3.30 in the morning in Las Vegas I thought ‘I don’t know why I’m saying the words ‘I do’ but I’m just saying I do’ then I was back in the hotel and I was like ugh.
“By the time I got to Los Angeles someone said who’s that man you’re with and I said a mistake, two days later. A big mistake.”
Denise Welch
Denise Welch tied the knot to third husband Lincoln Townley in 2013 with a fairytale wedding in the Algarve, Portugal.
“My most brilliant achievement was persuading Denise to marry me.
“I turned 40 last year and I have never met anyone like Denise, never been close to anyone like Denise, never loved anyone like I do Denise,” he said at the time, speaking to the Daily Mail.
However, it wasn’t Denise’s first rodeo, as she’d previously wed David Easter in 1983, who she split with in 1988, and married Benidorm star Tim Healy later that year, before they divorced in 2012.
Speaking of her split from second husband Tim, who she shares two kids with – 1975 band member Matthew Timothy, born in 1989, and Louis Vincent, born in 2001 – she revealed: “Tim and I separated some time ago. I’m not having an affair – we’ve been living our own lives for some time now.
“Tim and I feel a sense of relief that we don’t have to hide this any more. We’ve actually become better friends since we made the decision. But we wanted to have Christmas with the family without telling anybody.”
She later admitted they’d both been unfaithful, saying: “My husband and I both agree we held on far too long and we were making each other miserable and thankfully we’ve now got a great friendship.
“I genuinely used to think that being unfaithful wasn’t the worst thing you could do in a relationship. There were infidelities on both sides… which you girls know about.”
Andrea McLean
Andrea split from her first husband Nick Green, with whom she shares son Finlay, in 2005 after five years marriage.
She later wed Steve Toms in 2009 and went on to have daughter Amy together, but things weren’t meant to be and they filed for divorce in 2011.
Talking about the breakdown of her second marriage in 2012, Andrea admitted: “Steve and I had grown apart and we both knew it. We’d tried so many times to make it work, but it was hopeless.
“We held it together over Christmas for the kids but then on Boxing Day I took them to stay with my parents – and that was the end.
“I’m still in shock. When I hear myself talking about ‘my first marriage breakdown’ then ‘this time round’ the words are like a stab in the heart.
“Because I simply can’t believe I’m in this position again.
“People think I’m Snow White… the most boring person in the world! I’ve only ever slept with two men and I married them both.”
However, Andrea has since gone on to find love with business partner Nick Feeney, who she wed in 2018, after four years of dating.
“I never thought I’d feel like this again, that I’d fall in love and get the chance to start a new life,” she told HELLO! magazine.
“It’s been a revelation to him too. And because we make each other so happy, it’s changed our lives.
“So many people have commented on how much more positive I’ve become since I met him. Thanks to Nick, I’m no longer looking backwards, I’m looking forwards.”
Linda Robson
The Birds of a Feather star recently left Loose Women viewers gobsmacked when she admitted to being celibate for two years – despite being married to husband Mark Dunford.
However, the 65-year-old actress has since squashed any rumours by confirming to Woman magazine that she is now single.
“He’s a really good dad and we had some good years, but enough is enough,” she said.
“I’ve got my family and my kids around me. And I’m going on a cruise with Lesley Joseph in November. I’m keeping busy. I feel fine. I’m just going away on trips all the time.
“I’m not interested [in dating] honestly. I can’t be a***d with all that.”
In the past, Linda admitted how her social media addiction nearly ended her marriage.
Speaking in 2021, the TV star, who shares two children – singer-songwriter Louis, 31, and Roberta, 27 – with Mark, said: “It is really addictive. I was addicted to social media, do you remember? I wouldn’t go anywhere without my phone.
“I’d wake up in the middle of the night and be looking at social media.
“I mean, it nearly ended my marriage because we’d be sitting watching a film and I’d be on my phone. He would be like, ‘Are you going to watch with me or not?’ and then he’d go out.”
Linda was in a relationship with Tony Tyler for 11 years prior to Mark, and they had a daughter called Lauren in 1983.
Jane Moore
In December 2022, The Sun columnist Jane Moore announced she’d split from husband Gary Farrow after a 20 year marriage.
The mum-of-three told panellists Kelle Bryan, Coleen Nolan and Frankie Bridge: “It’s weird it’s out there because we’ve been processing it for about a year. We’re both quite private people and then he fell and broke his leg and then obviously all bets are off.
“We’re still going to spend Christmas together. The kids know, our family knows…”
Jane went on to say that caring for Gary after his injury had enabled them to split amicably.
“He is my best friend. I would hope he would say I’m his best friend and I’m very keen we don’t lose that element,” she added.
Nadia Sawhala
Nadia Sawalha revealed husband Mark wanted to divorce her because of the menopause.
The TV personality took to Instagram and said: “I’ve come in here into the bathroom so that Mark can’t hear me but we were just filming our podcast and he said that there was a point in my menopause where he thought about divorcing me.
“Apparently I was being very, very difficult. Me? Difficult? In my menopause? What the hell does he mean?
“I could really smash this whole house up, I could really tear my own hair out, I could really kick the car in – those are all perfectly reasonable things to say.
“Anyway, it was a bit of a shock but I acted really cool when he told me it.”