Coleen Nolan sobbed tears of joy as she watched her son Shane hold his baby girl for the first time.
There, in a hospital room in Manchester, the Loose Women star met little Amelia Rose, her first grandchild, back January 2016.
So proud was Ms Nolan that days later she conducted an interview with a red top newspaper about becoming a grandmother.
She gushed: ‘The moment Shane held her was so emotional and I really got what the big deal is about becoming a grandparent. It was my baby holding his baby. It was overwhelming. I felt so proud of him.’
But today things are very different for the former Nolans singer as a rift has opened-up with Amelia Rose’s mother, Emma Kivell.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that she hasn’t seen her granddaughter for nearly seven years after Ms Kivell and Shane Jnr – whose father is Eastenders actor Shane Richie – fell out.
One friend said: ‘At the time Amelia Rose was born, Coleen was on cloud nine. She was so proud her son and she fell in love with the baby, but Shane and Emma aren’t together, and these situations can become quite hard to navigate.
Coleen Nolan hasn’t seen her granddaughter, Amelia Rose, for nearly seven years after the girl’s parents, Emma Kivell and Shane Jnr, fell out
‘Shane promised to support Emma as she set about her journey into motherhood as a single mum along with the support of her own family, but now there is no contact between the little girl and the Nolans.’
In July, Ms Kivell and her close circle of friends and family were left disgusted when Shane Jnr and his family sent her a ‘script’ of what he and new girlfriend Kimberley Sallis were going to write on Instagram to announce she was pregnant just ten minutes before they posted the news.
The timing meant that Amelia Rose was still at school, so her mother didn’t have time to tell her before the pregnancy became public.
And the rift became so difficult that one of Ms Kivell’s friends attempted to complain to ITV about Ms Nolan but was told the fall out was a ‘private matter’.
Shane Jnr, 36, had met Ms Kivell while they were working together as Bluecoats at a holiday resort.
Speaking of her son becoming a father, Coleen told the Mirror: ‘They got together one night and there you go.’
In the same interview, she said: ‘But they’re not compatible in a relationship. Obviously, you wish they were badly in love and could see a future together. That’s the best scenario for anyone. But then I thought ‘‘Oh my God I’m going to be a nanny and was thrilled.’’’
Coleen with her former husband, actor Shane Richie, who is Amelia Rose’s grandfather
In June last year, Coleen, 60, announced that she was set to become a grandmother again when she revealed online that her youngest son, Jake Roche, 32, was expecting a little boy with his fiancée Georgia.
She said: ‘I can finally reveal that I’m going to be a grandmother again, as they’re expecting a baby at the end of the year.
‘On Saturday, a few of us got together at my house for the gender reveal and, just as I said, ‘‘I think it’s a boy’’, Jake let off the confetti gun and turned the living room blue. I couldn’t be more thrilled about having a grandson.’
Sources close to Ms Kivell say that Coleen’s public announcement left her upset and angry, with one noting that the television personality had previously gushed about Amelia Rose.
When asked if she wanted to comment on the fall out, Ms Nolan didn’t respond.
Ms Kivell was upset when Shane Jnr and his family sent her a ‘script’ of what he and new girlfriend Kimberley Sallis (pictured) were going to write on Instagram to announce she was pregnant just ten minutes before they posted the news
Shane Jnr married former Miss Great Britain Maddie Wahdan in July 2022, after dating for six years.
Little Amelia was not at the lavish nuptials held at Rushton Hall in Kettering as her dad walked down the aisle before posing for pictures with his famous parents.
The following year, in December 2023, the couple split up after it was reported that Shane had cheated on Maddie.
Last summer, it was revealed that Shane had found love again with mortgage manager Ms Sallis, who has a 12-year-old daughter.
Coleen, a star of the 1970s band The Nolans, married EastEnders actor Shane Richie in 1990 and they have two sons, Jake and Shane Jnr.
However, they split in 1997 after she found out that Shane had an affair, which she said she discovered while he was playing Danny Zuko in Grease in Manchester while she and her children were living in the south.
Coleen wrote in her autobiography: At the after-show party, I can distinctly remember examining this one girl. There were loads of people there, but she just stood out.
‘She had really long dark hair and was wearing a skin-tight white dress. Well, it must have been female intuition because that turned out to be the girl Shane had an affair with.’
The estranged couple’s other son Jake, 33, is a lead singer of rock band Rixton having trained at the Sylvia Young theatre school.
