TV personality and singer Coleen Nolan may be enjoying a career revival — but there's no doubt that when the chips are down, family comes first. The 44-year-old Blackpool lass has dealt with divorce, step-families and a plethora of other problems throughout her life, yet still comes up smiling.

Despite her high-profile roles as a member of the panel on ITV1's Loose Women, the face of Iceland ads and co-host of Dancing On Ice, Coleen had one of her proudest moments when her two sons, Shane Junior, 21, and Jake, 16, supported her and her siblings on the hugely successful Nolan Sisters tour last year.

“They both have great voices and a great connection on stage. The crowd just loved them. It was fantastic to be on tour with my whole family. Ray (her second husband) was playing guitar and Ciara (her eight-year-old daughter) came along too.”

She's not sure whether Ciara will follow in her showbiz footsteps.

“Ciara's quite shy but she's definitely got music in her. She's learning the piano, is always dancing and has a lovely singing voice — but there's still a little part of me thinking, ‘Oh, please get a proper job’!”

The Nolans, who enjoyed hits including I'm In The Mood For Dancing in the late 1970s, became huge in Japan, and supported Frank Sinatra on the European leg of his world tour, hope to do another tour following last year's success.

But singing on stage clearly comes second to parenting. Doting mother Coleen pens a weekly parenting column in the Mirror and has now written a book Mum To Mum, based on the column and drawn from her own experience on the many dilemmas facing mothers today, including the issue of divorce.

It is a subject which comes close to home for Coleen, who went through a very public split from her first husband Shane Richie, with whom she had Shane Junior and Jake, which ended in divorce in 2003.

“I'd watched friends go through divorce long before it ever happened to me and Shane and I'd seen how they had used the kids to hurt each other, dumping them at each other's doors and then driving off.

“I vividly remember at the time thinking, ‘If this ever happens to me, I'll never do that to my kids’.”

She recalls of her own divorce: “As a mum, I felt like a complete failure and was horrified my boys were going to be from a broken home. On top of everything I was going through with my ex, I couldn't shake this terrible guilt that I'd let my children down.”

Shane Junior and Jake were seven and four respectively when her marriage collapsed.

“My initial instinct was to protect the kids and it's really hard. You know the way to hurt him back would be to not let him see the kids. But who would that be benefiting?"

“There were times when I thought I was going a bit mad. Once I'd got them to bed at night, that would probably be my nervous breakdown moment where I'd sit in the kitchen and sob for three or four hours.”

It is to her credit that she managed to remain civil towards Shane Richie, even though he had cheated on her, and she let him see as much of the children as he wanted to.

“The boys never saw me cry, although once they were out of the house I'd be in floods.

Once they realised that their lives weren't being changed and they were going to get the best of both worlds, they were fine.”

Coleen, however, underwent six months of counselling to cope with the emotional trauma.

“It helped massively. I think everyone should go to counselling, even when you are still together.

“It was great to be able to talk to someone who was completely unrelated to the situation and who was there just to listen to me. It helped me solve problems and cope with destructive emotions like anger and bitterness.

“In some respects, I think I protected them too well. I should have explained a bit more than I did. Before it came to an end, I'd been going through it for two years and they had no idea. So it was a massive shock for the boys when I told them me and Dad weren't going to be together any more.

“I also protected Shane 100 per cent, but it has worked out fine because they have learned a lot more now that they are older and they still absolutely adore their dad, but they respect me.”

The boys only found out exactly what went on when they read Coleen's autobiography, Upfront & Personal, published last year.

Shane Junior and Jake remain close to their father and both look like following in their parents'

showbiz footsteps. Both appeared with Shane in panto over Christmas and Jake lived with his father in London when he attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School.

Today, Coleen is in a much happier place with her second husband, music promoter Ray Fensome, with whom she had Ciara.

Coleen's career shows no signs of slowing.

She has a debut novel, Envy, coming out in June, centred in the world of TV, and there's talk of another tour with her sisters.

"I remember standing on stage at our last tour and thinking, of all the things I've done, this is what I was born to do. There's no adrenaline rush like performing live — and being with your sisters and the rest of your family."

■ Mum To Mum, by Coleen Nolan, is published by Sidgwick & Jackson, price £12.99