She failed to find love when she put her romantic life in the hands of the experts on Celebs Go Dating.But Coleen Nolan’s stint on the E4 show did have an unexpected result – it made her realise she was ready for a younger man.The Daily Mail can reveal that being paired with younger suitors during filming opened the 61-year-old Loose Women star’s eyes to a ‘different kind of relationship’ before she began dating Ryan Brockbank, who is believed to be in his late forties.And after quietly seeing each other for the past few months, sources say it was a romantic week away together in East Sussex last month that convinced Coleen their relationship was going somewhere.One source said: ‘Coleen is really happy. Her and Ryan have a lot of fun together, they make each other laugh a lot.‘She was introduced to younger guys while taking part in Celebs Go Dating and it really opened her eyes to having a different kind of relationship.’ Coleen Nolan went Instagram official with her new toyboy partner Ryan Brockbank as she posted a sweet loved-up snap on Tuesday Coleen captioned her post with Ryan’s initial alongside a red heart emojiColeen had entered the celebrity dating agency declaring she was ‘ready to find the love of [her] life’, while Channel 4 bosses hoped she would embrace becoming the series’ resident ‘cougar’ by dating younger suitors.While none of her matches ultimately resulted in lasting romance, the experience appears to have shifted what the twice-divorced presenter was looking for.And it was not long before Ryan came along.The pair have been quietly dating for the past few months, but appeared to take a significant step forward when they escaped to East Sussex for a week together in July.They spent their romantic break exploring the countryside and headed to Brighton for a day out, with Coleen later sharing photographs from the trip on Instagram, including a selfie with Ryan.‘Coleen and Ryan had a wonderful time away together,’ a source said. ‘They spent a glorious week exploring the East Sussex countryside and even had a day out in Brighton.‘Coleen knew after their week together that things were going in the right direction with Ryan. It’s all been so easy with him and she couldn’t be happier.’There had already been clues that somebody new was making Coleen smile.During an episode of her YouTube show Nolans Uncensored in the middle of July, Coleen appeared alongside her son Shane Nolan and daughter Ciara Fensome, with the family repeatedly referring to a mysterious ‘Ryan.’After several attempts to steer clear of the subject, it was Coleen herself who eventually brought him up.As her children broke into Stevie Wonder’s For Once In My Life, she chuckled: ‘I’m going to sing that to Ryan.’The following week, the new couple headed off on their East Sussex getaway.Ryan is a lecturer at the Fashion Retail Academy – the prestigious London fashion school attended by Molly-Mae Hague before she shot to fame following her appearance on Love Island in 2019.Coleen’s new romance also comes as she enjoys a fresh burst of confidence after losing three-and-a-half stone.Earlier this year, the presenter began working with weight-loss company Voy and has since gone from a size 20 to a size 14.And friends say the transformation, coupled with her new relationship, has left her feeling better than ever.The source added: ‘Coleen feels sexier than ever since losing the weight, and now she’s bagged herself a younger man.‘She’s not stopped smiling. Her kids are all happy for her, as are her friends and family. She’s really enjoying herself.’ The new couple have been secretly enjoying a romance for months, after her failed stint on Celebs Go Dating Coleen and Ryan, who is 20 years her junior, are thought to have already enjoyed a romantic getaway together, and Ryan has shared snaps of the star on social media Ryan is a lecturer at Fashion Retail Academy – the prestigious fashion school that Molly-Mae Hague attendedIt is an unexpected postscript to Coleen’s stint on Celebs Go Dating, which had initially promised to find the veteran television star a new partner itself.When the 61-year-old signed up for the programme, insiders said she likely hoped the E4 series would kill two birds with one stone: boost the bank balance while finally landing the elusive happy ending she has spent years searching for.‘I’m known for being a Loose Woman,’ she declared in promotional clips. ‘So let’s see if my dates can handle it.’Channel 4 bosses had hoped Coleen would become the series’ resident ‘cougar,’ with younger suitors lined up for the Loose Women panellist.There was, however, something quietly bleak about the spectacle of a veteran daytime star – once one of ITV’s most dependable fixtures – sitting beneath the fluorescent lights of a reality dating show searching for validation from younger men.And despite entering the agency proclaiming she was ‘ready to find the love of [her] life,’ Coleen ultimately failed to find lasting romance during filming and came away empty-handed.The presenter’s own romantic history has hardly been straightforward either.She famously split from EastEnders actor Shane Richie, 62, in 1997 after she discovered he had been unfaithful, which she said she learned while he was playing Danny Zuko in Grease in Manchester while she and her children were living in the south.The pair share sons Shane Nolan Jr, 37, and former Rixton frontman Jake Roche, 33.In her autobiography, Coleen recalled spotting a glamorous woman in a skin-tight white dress at an after-show party before later discovering she was the woman Shane had allegedly had an affair with.‘Well, it must have been female intuition,’ she wrote.Her second marriage, to musician Ray Fensome, also ended in divorce after more than a decade together. The former couple share daughter Ciara, 25.Most recently, Coleen was in a relationship with supermarket logistics manager Michael Jones after the pair met on Tinder.But while Celebs Go Dating did not provide the happy ending she had gone looking for, it seems the experience may have helped Coleen work out what she wanted when the right man finally came along.