Coleen Nolan is spending Christmas with her ex-husband Ray Fensome.
The couple’s 10-year marriage ended at the beginning of this year after they endured a "hellish" 12 months which left their romance "truly dead".
However, since they legally separated the pair have never got on better and so Coleen asked Ray to return to the family home for the festive holiday so he can spend Christmas with her and their 17-year-old daughter Ciara.
Speaking on ‘Loose Women’ on Tuesday (18.12.18), she said: "The last couple of years have been really painful for both of us, last Christmas wasn’t a great one for us because we knew it was the end. And we’ve split up and we’re now divorced and we’ve never ever been as good friends as we are now. He’s coming and spending Christmas. For me, I couldn’t think of anything worse than Ray being on his own at Christmas, we’ve got Ciara together so he’s coming over on Christmas Eve and he’s going to stay until Boxing Day and we’re all really looking forward to it. Sometimes I do think, obviously depending on the circumstances, but I think sometimes life is too short to hold on to anger and grudges."
Coleen – who also has sons Shane Jr, 30, and Jake, 26, with her ex-husband Shane Richie – admits even she has been surprised at how well she and professional guitarist Ray are now getting on since they stopped being husband and wife.
She added: "We really didn’t each other married, I couldn’t stand him, but now I like him. I’m really excited. I think you’ve got to think about the good times as well as everything that went wrong, we had many years that were great."