Denise Nolan is married! Wedding exclusive as star, 72, marries surrounded by famous siblings: ‘We’ve been together 47 years - we love each other’

Newlyweds Denise Nolan and Tom Anderson waited almost half a century to officially become husband and wife.

Now, in the shadow of the iconic Blackpool Tower and witnessed by their nearest and dearest – including Denise’s sisters Coleen, Linda, Anne and Maureen – the couple have cemented the final chapter in their decades-long love story.

When OK! speaks to Denise the day after the ceremony and she reminisces about the poignant moments that made it so special, it is clear she’s still on an emotional – albeit exhausted – high.

“I had a fabulous day,” she smiles. “But everyone’s exhausted, we didn’t get home until midnight. We danced our legs off all night!”

The couple, who married on Monday 17 June, first met when Denise, now 72, was singing with The Nolans and Tom, 77, was the resident drummer at the London Rooms, above London’s New London Theatre in the West End.

“We’ve been together now for 47 years and we love each other. We got engaged about 30 years ago, but we didn’t think we needed the piece of paper to say that,” she says. “He’s asked me to marry him a few times but usually when he’s had a drink and is feeling sentimental! Then I mention it to him the next day and he runs a mile!”

One important factor that contributed to the couple finally making it official was Tom’s heartbreaking Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2018. Denise accepts, especially given her own family losses, that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and they “didn’t want to wait until further down the line where he might be a lot worse and it could be hard work”.

When the pair decided that the time had finally come to make it official, it took them a while to work out exactly how and when they wanted to do it. Initially, Denise laughs, they “weren’t going to make a big deal of it”, planning an intimate ceremony with just her, Tom and two witnesses to sign the paperwork. But things moved on once Linda caught wind of the idea.

“When we told Linda, she said, ‘You have to tell the family,’ and reminded me how upset I was when Coleen ran away and got married [to Shane Richie], so I realised I needed to tell them. Then it went from being the four of us to being about 55 of us!”

Denise, as any Nolans fan knows, is from a big family, which includes her brothers Tommy, 74, and Brian, 69, who gave her away last week, and sisters Anne, 73, Maureen, 70, Linda, 65, Coleen, 59, and Bernadette, who tragically died in 2013 at just 52.

The family relocated from Dublin to Blackpool in the early 1960s, and Denise still lives there with Tom and sister Linda, who learnt last year that her cancer had spread to her brain. Maureen and Anne are also nearby.

The couple split their earlier years together between California – where Tom’s son, Tom Jr, still lives with his family – and the UK’s north west. But when it came to finally saying “I do”, there was only one location they’d consider – Blackpool Promenade. They booked The Wedding Chapel (Festival House), which sits right on the famous promenade with views of Blackpool Tower.

The bigger-than-first-planned guest list included all Denise’s sisters and their partners, including Coleen and her boyfriend Michael Jones, as well as a special gang of friends from her and Tom’s “Thursday Club” [the group meet every Thursday at a club near Blackpool], who surprised them with a wedding cake.

“When you get married at Festival House, you can see Blackpool Tower and the beach, it’s just lovely. We didn’t want a big church service so it was perfect for us, and it meant we could choose all our own music and have the celebrant, who was a gem.”

Given they’d waited so long to get married, Denise says she and Tom wanted to make sure their special day was all about making memories with their nearest and dearest. Her flowers, which included yellow roses and freesias, were gifted by Linda, who also insisted on contributing to the cost of the day as a thank you for the couple’s support during her illness and cancer treatments.

“The family are all very generous but Linda is especially generous. Please God she’s not going to leave us any time, but I think she feels, with her incurable illness, that she wants to help out when she can. When we arrived at Festival House I realised we’d forgotten the flowers that Linda had paid a fortune for, and I thought she’d be so hurt if I didn’t walk down the aisle with them – so my poor brother had to rush back and get them!”

As well as not enjoying being the centre of attention – “unless I’m on stage,” Denise says – she is also a no-nonsense woman when it comes to organising. She tells us, laughing, that Tom’s dashing light blue three-piece suit and her own wedding outfit – a yellow sequin maxi dress and navy blue sequin blazer with matching fascinator – were all bought online, because she didn’t want to spend hours trawling Blackpool’s shops.

“Linda was desperate to come and was saying, ‘We’ll go to this shop and that shop,’ but I said, ‘Let’s just see what they have online.’ Linda wasn’t sure about anything I picked but every time something arrived she’d say, Oh that’s gorgeous!’”

The couple’s rings – both simple bands with the words “I love you” inscribed inside – were also bought online and perfectly match the engagement ring Denise has been wearing for years.

As well as wanting to fill the day with love, Denise also wanted to remember those who couldn’t be there, including her younger sister Bernie, who lost her battle with breast cancer 11 years ago.

“When our late sister Bernie got married, the whole family got up and sang Frank Sinatra’s You, My Love mixed with a song from West Side Story called One Hand, One Heart. It was really lovely, with beautiful harmonies. I videoed it from the back of the room and my friend was able to get a good quality sound recording, so we played it on our big day.”

Denise walked down the aisle to one of her own Sinatra covers from her Top 20 album released in 2022, which was co-produced by Tom and left the room in floods of tears.

Sister Linda later told us, “It was such an emotional experience for all of us, it felt like a fairy tale come true. Watching Denise walk down the aisle, knowing all the years of love, trials, and triumphs she and Tom have shared, brought tears to my eyes. We’ve faced so much together, and being there with my sisters, celebrating such a beautiful union, made me feel deeply grateful for the bond we share.”

“Everybody was crying, even Tom was sobbing,” says Denise. “I also picked Frank Sinatra’s Love And Marriage because I thought, ‘I have to have a comic song in there,’ and we’re all Sinatra addicts in our family. As we walked back down the aisle we had Tom singing Love Will Keep Us Together. To be able to choose all our own music was really special for us.”

After the ceremony and photos, the group went to the nearby Park House Hotel for the speeches and dancing. Denise shared a reading that summed up her love for Tom. Called To My Man, it included the lines, “Whenever you feel overwhelmed, remember whose king you are and straighten your crown. The day I met you, I found my missing piece. Meeting you was fate, becoming your partner was a choice, but falling in love with you was beyond my control.”

The wedding party were then treated to a DJ set by a family friend, including lots of Nolans tracks and a healthy dose of Sinatra. The couple’s first dance was to Stevie Wonder’s Sunshine Of My Life, which Denise admits might not have been her first choice. “I love Michael Bublé but my sister had him as her first dance and her marriage broke up, so I didn’t think I could inflict that on her!

"Stevie Wonder was a great choice for us because Tom used to sing his songs and that’s what drew me to him, his wonderful voice. He introduced me to legendary Stevie and the first song I ever heard him sing was Sunshine Of My Life.

"All of us really do like to dance. After Maureen’s birthday on Friday, I thought she’d be so tired, but she was up all night dancing and Coleen went to change from her lovely fancy shoes into her trainers because she wanted to dance, and I ended up dancing in my bare feet because my shoes were killing me. The DJ had a whole set of the girls’ songs, so he played them and the girls did all the routines, which everybody loved.”

While their day was full of love and laughter, there were, of course, some quiet moments of reflection, not least for those who were no longer around to witness the happy moment.

Denise says she thought of her mum Maureen, sister Bernie, and also her late Auntie Teresa, who she was very close to, at various points in the day, and they played a special recording of Bernie singing Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely.

“Obviously, not a day goes by where we don’t think of her,” she says. “But you can’t bring it up too much because it becomes very sad. She was such a presence in our lives. She was a real extrovert and such fun. So any party we have, we know she should be there. And my auntie would have loved it, and she loved Tom. Actually, everybody loves Tom, he’s just the sort of person that everyone loves.”

Later, sister Linda summed up her memories of the special day, telling us, “With everything that’s happened in my own life, moments like these become even more precious. We’ve always been each other’s pillars of strength, but that day, the joy and love in the air were palpable.

“It was a day filled with laughter, tears, and memories I will cherish forever. It was a reminder of the power of family, love and the incredible journey we’ve all been on together. Life is unpredictable and often tough, but moments like these, surrounded by those we love, make it all worthwhile.”

Denise and Tom are planning to honeymoon in Scarborough and, in true Nolan style, it will be a sisterly affair. “It’s one of our favourite places in the world, and Linda, Maureen and Anne are coming with us!” laughs Denise.