BLACKPOOL songstress Colleen Nolan and celebrity husband Shane Richie have announced their separation.

The announcement came this week - two years after the couple renewed their vows in a hush-hush ceremony at St Annes.

The romantic picture was shattered by tabloid revelations of "Daz the Dirty" canoodling in a Sheffield nightclub.

But while Colleen, the youngest of the Blackpool-based Nolan sisters, spoke of her heartbreak, the game show host most famous for his whiter-than-white Daz adverts vowed there was no third party involved in the split.

He said: "I know everyone thinks I'm rampant but there is nobody else. I have promised Colleen that."

In August 1996, family and a few close friends witnessed a romantic ceremony exclusively reported in the Citizen at Our Lady Star Of The Sea Church in St Annes when the couple, accompanied by their two children, had their marriage blessed.

Colleen's singing sisters, all well-known over many years for their performances in the resort, were among a handful of guests.

The 'bride' wore white and carried a huge bouquet of red roses.

But in the ensuing months, rumours were rife that all was not well.

They were rarely seen together in public and Shane's work - TV's Lucky Numbers, wedding show Love Me Do and his current national tour of the musical Boogie Nights - was blamed for pressures on the eight-year marriage.

While most of Colleen's family - including sisters Linda, Denise and Maureen - remain in the Fylde, Colleen is alone with her children at the couple's Buckinghamshire mansion.

In a statement issued this week, Shane conceded nights away had caused the rift.

He said long periods apart had put a strain on the marriage and a separation would be in their best interests.

It was, they said, a joint decision and they were both hoping for a reconciliation.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.