The Loose Women talk about absolutely everything on the show, from current affairs to personal anecdotes, but one theme that pops up very frequently is relationships. Marriage and break-ups are a regular topic of conversation on the hit ITV show, with some of the panellists, including Janet Street-Porter, Denise Welch and Jane Moore, having gone through heartbreaking splits and separations of their own off-screen. Ruth Langsford is the most recent star of the show to go through a divorce behind closed doors, having announced her separation from news anchor Eamonn Holmes back in May 2024.

From Jane Moore’s secret separation from her “best friend” Gary and the sweet reason Jane McDonald’s late husband walked out on their marriage, to the more heartbreaking story behind Coleen Nolan’s separation, read everything that the Loose Women hosts have revealed about their love lives below…

Linda Robson

Panellist and former Birds of a Feather actress Linda Robson secretly split from her husband Mark Dunford, whom she met as a teenager when she was just sixteen. The pair married in 1990, welcoming two children: Louis and Roberta, before secretly splitting in 2023.

Linda hasn’t revealed when exactly they separated, but hinted at the split throughout that year, saying on the show: “I’ve had two loves of my life and now my grandchildren are the love of my life and my children. So no, I’m not looking for anyone.”

Janet Street-Porter

Janet Street-Porter had been married four times before she fell in love with Peter Spanton. First, she married photographer Tim Street-Porter in 1967, but Janet admitted to having several affairs before they split in 1975. She was later married to publisher Tony Elliot between 1975 and 1977, Frank Cvitanovich from 1977 to 1981, and David Sorkin from 1997 to 1999.

Speaking about the end of her first marriage, Janet told The Independentthat Tim confronted her about her affair with Tony Elliott after she went on a weekend away with him to the Forest of Dean. “He told me if I got my stuff and got in the car with him within ten minutes, he’d drive us back to London and it would be OK – he’d never discuss tonight or Tony and me again.”

While Tim waited for Janet in the car, she lost track of time in her own upset, telling the publication: “I spent the next 15 minutes ranting about the general unfairness of time limits, how I needed longer to think about the situation. In my fury, I suddenly heard the roar of the Porsche. Tim was gone. I’d blown it. My marriage was definitely over this time.”

Ruth Langsford

In May 2024, Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford announced their separation after 14 years of marriage. A spokesperson told HELLO! at the time: “Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes have confirmed their marriage is over and they are in the process of divorcing.”

Though the pair had not been seen together in public in the two years leading up to the announcement, Ruth had been helping rehabilitate Eamonn as he underwent physiotherapy for his mobility issues. She previously told Women’s Weekly: “I don’t know how much Eamonn’s mobility will improve. We live in hope.” In May, HELLO! exclusively found out that disputes over ownership of the family home could make things “quite complicated”.

Jane Moore

Jane married Gary Farrow in 2002, later announcing that their relationship had ended live on Loose Women in December 2022. She explained that she planned to continue to live with her “best friend”, Gary, and their kids, Ellie, Grace and Lauren, for the rest of 2022, before selling the family home and purchasing separate properties “near each other” in 2023.

The separation did not come completely out of nowhere, as Jane explained on the show: “We’ve been processing it for about a year. So we’re both quite private people. We had discussed it last year.” Lightening the mood, Jane joked: “And then he fell and broke his leg and, no, I didn’t push him. Just want to put that out there. He fell and broke his leg. And obviously, then all bets are off.” More seriously, she added: “I would hope he would say I’m his best friend. And I’m keen we don’t lose that element.”

Denise Welch

Denise Welch has been married to her third husband, Lincoln Townley, since 2013, but she previously wed David Easter in 1983 before their split in 1988, and actor Tim Healy later that year, before they divorced in 2012.

She announced the end of her marriage with Tim on the TV show, telling the panel: “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 anymore. We’ve actually become better friends since we made the decision.”

She later confessed they were both unfaithful, stating: “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.”

Jane McDonald

Following two divorces, Jane McDonald found love with her late fiancé Ed Rothe, who passed with lung cancer in 2021. She was first married to a man named Paul for one year in 1987, before exchanging vows with her second husband, Henrik Brixen, while filming BBC show The Cruise.

However, her relationship with plumber Henrik came to an end due to her career. “Henrik tried his very, very best, and he was brilliant at what he did, but he didn’t know the industry,” Jane revealed to The Mirror back in 2018. “We’d come to a point where Henrik had made quite a few enemies, and he said, ‘If I don’t leave you, you are never going to have a career.’ And that is why I never talk about Henrik in a bad light at all because he was the one that walked out of the marriage to save my career.”

Coleen Nolan

Coleen Nolan has been married twice: first to actor Shane Richie from 1990 to 1999, and secondly to guitarist Ray Fensome from 2007 to 2018. She opened up about her ex-husband Shane being unfaithful during a chat on Loose Women and revealed she wished she had listened to her intuition.

“I kept making excuses, I kept thinking it was me. I was just turning into this person that I’ve never been before. I was checking receipts, checking phone bills, going to shops and going, ‘What was actually bought with this receipt?’. I turned into this detective that I’ve never been, and it was all true, and I should have listened to my instincts at the beginning but your heart doesn’t want to,” the presenter said.

Following her split from her second husband, Coleen described the end of their relationship as “hellish” and admitted her marriage was “truly dead.” She explained: “Me and my husband Ray are divorcing. I wanted to tell you first, as I can hardly sit here and keep dishing out advice if I’m not being totally straight about what is going on in my own life. I’ve got tears pouring down my face as I write this. It’s hard to imagine that so much could have changed from that day when we married,” writing in her agony aunt column for The Mirror.

She continued: “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. And I guess that’s what makes me sad. But, slowly, as I come to terms with the reality of it all, it’s making me excited too.

“As I’ve written a million times before – women who’ve tried everything to fix a marriage but still feel desperately unhappy have to get out. We owe it to ourselves. And we also owe it to our kids to show them that everyone has a right to be happy.”

Nadia Sawalha

Before tying the knot with her husband, Mark Adderley, Nadia was married to record producer Justin Mildwater from 1992 until 1997. Just months after they separated, Justin, who was just 31 at the time, took his own life on Christmas Day.”My husband committed suicide after I’d left him and it’s been hard. I loved Justin very much. I just wasn’t in love with him anymore,” she said in 2000. “My real agony is his family, who haven’t spoken to me since. They were very angry with me. It causes me terrible grief and it always will.”