Coleen Nolan has revealed she has not seen her granddaughter Amelia Rose for almost seven years, a fallout she says stems from a rift between Amelia’s mother, Emma Kivell, and Nolan’s son Shane Jnr, whose father is EastEnders actor Shane Richie.
Amelia Rose was born in January 2016 in Manchester, and Nolan, then riding high on the excitement of grandparenthood, publicly celebrated the moment. She spoke about how emotional it was to see her son Shane holding his baby for the first time, telling a red-top newspaper at the time that it felt overwhelming to watch “my baby holding his baby.” Those memories now stand in stark contrast to the present, as Nolan has not had contact with Amelia for nearly seven years amid the couple’s split and a growing family dispute.
The Mail on Sunday reports that Emma Kivell and Shane Jnr – the son of actor Shane Richie – parted ways, and that a lack of ongoing contact with Amelia has followed. A friend described how Coleen was overjoyed when Amelia was born and formed a strong bond with the child, but the pair’s breakup has created a difficult dynamic for the family to navigate. The rift has persisted so deeply that family members have faced friction over public statements and private concerns about how to handle the situation. Attempts to comment on the fallout from within the Nolan circle were described as a private matter, with some requesting ITV address the issue privately rather than publicly.
In July, Emma Kivell and her circle were reportedly angered when Shane Jnr and his family sent a scripted outline of what they planned to write on Instagram to announce Emma’s pregnancy, just ten minutes before they posted the news. The timing meant Amelia Rose was still at school and had little opportunity to hear the news from her mother before it became public. The rift grew so intense that one of Kivell’s friends briefly considered lodging a complaint with ITV, though they were told the fallout remained a private matter. Shane Jnr, now 36, had met Kivell while they worked together as Bluecoats at a holiday resort, and their relationship produced a grandson that Nolan once imagined sharing in her family’s celebrations.
Speaking about his son’s role as a father, Coleen told the Mirror that Shane and Emma had met and were together for a time, but they were not compatible as a couple. She added that she had hoped for a future where they could be in love and provide stability for Amelia, but acknowledged that the reality failed to meet that ideal. Coleen described the moment she realized she would become a grandmother and how thrilled she was to imagine being a nanny, even as the family’s personal struggles intensified.
Last year, Coleen also announced that she would be a grandmother again when her youngest son Jake Roche and his fiancée Georgia were expecting. She shared the moment of the gender reveal, noting that she believed it would be a boy and that the family was excited to welcome another grandson. Public statements surrounding Amelia’s status, and Nolan’s own announcements about grandchildren, appear to have added to the tension within the wider Nolans clan, complicating relations with Emma and Shane Jnr.
Shane Jnr later married Maddie Wahdan in July 2022, after dating for six years. Amelia Rose did not attend the lavish Rushton Hall ceremony in Kettering, where her father walked down the aisle and posed for photos with his famous parents. The following year, in December 2023, the couple reportedly split after reports of infidelity, and in the summer that followed, it emerged that Shane had found a new partner in Kimberley Sallis, a mortgage manager who has a 12-year-old daughter.
Coleen, a star of the 1970s band The Nolans, married EastEnders actor Shane Richie in 1990. They have two sons, Jake Roche and Shane Jnr, but separated in 1997 after Coleen found out about Shane’s affair. In her autobiography, she recounted the moment she discovered the affair, describing how it unfolded during a period when Shane was playing Danny Zuko in Grease in Manchester while she and the children were living in the south. The couple’s other son, Jake, now leads the band Rixton and trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School.
As of this publication, there has been no public update from Emma Kivell or from Nolan on the latest status of the relationship with Amelia. Nolan did not respond to inquiries about the rift, and the matter has largely remained a private family dispute rather than a public controversy. The family’s saga underscores the complexities that can arise when personal relationships intersect with public profiles, particularly when children are involved.