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Matty Healy’s mother, Denise Welch, risked the ire of Swifties everywhere when she shaded her son’s ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift in July 2025.
The U.K. actress and TV host was surprisingly blunt during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen when asked how she felt about Swift purportedly writing about her split from Healy on her 2024, album The Tortured Poets Department.
“Obviously, on pain of death, can I talk about that episode, but not being her mother-in-law is a role that I’m glad that I lost,” Welch admitted, before adding: “Not that I have anything against her at all. It was just — it was tricky.”
Welch complained that Swift’s ex-boyfriends often are “not allowed to say anything, and then she writes a whole album.” She added: “Matty has taken it all in completely good grace. He’s very happy with his amazing fiancée, Gabriella, Gabbriette, who is gorgeous.”
It’s probably no surprise that Welch is well known in the U.K. for sharing her candid opinions on and off for 20 years on Loose Women, the British equivalent of The View.
Keep scrolling for five things to know about Welch:
1. Soap Icon
Welch got her start in the entertainment industry in the early 1980s as an actress with a series of minor roles in hit shows Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Byker Grove. After landing a leading part in crime drama Spender in 1991, she joined a U.K. TV institution in 1997 with her casting in Coronation Street. (The prime time soap has aired continuously on British TV since 1960 and has helped launch the careers of international stars such as Fool Me Once’s Michelle Keegan, Peaky Blinders actor Stephen Graham and Absolutely Fabulous icon Joanna Lumley, among many others.)
Welch spent four years playing temptress Natalie Barnes before announcing in 2000 that she was quitting Coronation Street as part of the soap’s 40th anniversary festivities.
“I never intended to stay forever,” she said at the time. “Four years in one job is a long time for me and I just felt like it was time to leave. I won’t miss Natalie’s traumas or the constant crying. Let’s face it, she has been through the mill.”
Welch has remained a fixture of the U.K. soap scene, having landed recurring stints in Hollyoaks and Emmerdale as well as making a prominent guest appearance in the BBC’s EastEnders in 2016.
2. Loose Woman
Five years after leaving Coronation Street, Welch made the jump to daytime TV as a recurring panelist on Loose Women in 2005. Much like its American predecessor The View, ITV’s panel show features a revolving group of hosts interviewing celebrities and discussing the day’s hot topics.
Welch quickly earned a reputation as one of the most outspoken panelists on Loose Women. Her fiery personality led to on-air clashes with many of her cohosts, though Welch insisted in 2025 that the cast remain bonded despite their disagreements.
“There’s life in these old girls yet,” she told The Mirror. “We don’t care what Doris from Darlington on Twitter says. We’ve worn every T-shirt, we’ve rewashed it and re-ironed it and put it back in the drawer. Older women’s voices are so important, and I’m very proud to be a part of a show that continues to celebrate that.”
The Loose Women cohost added, “I’m very proud to be part of [the show] – and not just because it’s a female-led show, because our age range ranges from 25 to 85! We’ve got GK Barry at 25 and Gloria [Hunniford] at 85. What other show not only employs older women [but] reveres and celebrates the voices of older women.”
That’s not to say it has been entirely smooth sailing for Welch on Loose Women, as she made headlines in 2013 by quitting the daytime show amid a format overhaul.
“I’ve quit. I was hurt that changes were made and kept a secret, and that the person responsible for the decisions hadn’t come and talked to me about it,” Welch told the Sunday Mirror. “She must have known how I felt. When you have invested ten years in a job our views should mean something and our feelings should be taken into account.”
She continued, “Every show needs a shake-up. But the way the show’s going I’ve felt that my wings have been clipped. Fundamentally the fun of the show is what made it for me, and I feel the way it’s going is losing the fun of it.”
Welch was brought back to Loose Women in 2018 after five years away and has been a mainstay on the ITV show ever since.
3. Fierce Defender of the Sussexes
One of Welch’s most controversial stances on Loose Women is her consistent defense of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry from U.K. press intrusion — even referring to Markle as “the most bullied woman in this world” at one point.
Welch was a rare voice in the British media to have taken Markle’s side during her highly-publicized falling out with Buckingham Palace and move to the U.S. in 2020. As a result of her outspoken support of the Sussexes, Welch claimed to have been bullied by Palace defenders.
“[My defense of Meghan] doesn’t mean I’m a horrible person, it’s means that I’ve got a voice that I’m prepared to use to support someone that I don’t know, but that I feel gets a terrible terrible rap in this world, it’s Meghan Markle,” Welch said on the “ADHD Chatter Podcast” in October 2024. “Then of course you get the people who are anti-Meghan Markle who will portray me on social media to be ‘a bully’. It’s, like, well, I’ve never bullied anyone in my entire life. If you mean by checking someone that I vehemently disagree with because they’re denigrating someone that they don’t know either.”
Welch concluded, “I don’t know how [Markle] gets through every day, that woman, I really don’t. I really really don’t. She’s the most bullied woman in this world, but if you stick up for someone you’ll then be accused of being a bully.”
During a July 2025 appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Welch admitted she had “a very different [opinion] to a lot of people” in the U.K. when it comes to Markle and Prince Harry.
“[On] Loose Women, I’m like the only person who flies the Harry and Meghan flag, and I don’t know them. I’ve met a few of the royals over the years but I’ve never met them,” she said. “I just think that the amount of bullying by the press, British and American, that that woman gets [is unfair].”
4. Divorce Shocker
Welch has been married three times — first to fellow soap star David Easter from 1983 to 1989 and later to actor Tim Healy from 1988 to 2012. Healy and Welch share two children: The 1975 frontman Matty, born in April 1989, and actor Louis, born in March 2001.
Following a stint on Celebrity Big Brother U.K. in 2012, the press relentlessly speculated about the status of Welch and Healy’s marriage. Welch surprised Loose Women viewers in February 2012 by announcing live on-air that she’d ended her 14-year marriage to Healy and was dating party organizer Lincoln Townley.
“Tim and I separated some time ago and so I’m not having an affair, we’ve been living our own lives for some time now,” she confirmed. “But the press furore, if that’s the word, after I came out of Celebrity Big Brother naively took us by storm but there has been nothing in the papers that my family didn’t know about.”
“[Tim and I] have actually become better friends since we made the decision but we wanted to have Christmas with the family without telling anybody … I’m not having an affair, I am officially separated,” she clarified.
Welch and Townley tied the knot in Portugal in July 2013.
5. Taylor Swift Drama
Welch’s surprising comment about her son’s split from Swift on WWHL in July 2025 wasn’t the first time she’s discussed their relationship — or their split — in a public forum.
Shortly before Swift started dating current boyfriend Travis Kelce, the pop icon was romantically linked to The 1975’s singer in spring 2023. The relationship proved to be divisive with Swifties given Healy’s history of problematic behavior, though they wouldn’t have to worry for long, as the pair reportedly split in June 2023.
Welch was initially supportive of the relationship, even posing with Swift backstage at a London concert. However, once the split occurred, Welch reportedly liked a satirical post from comedian Henry Rowley captioned “Every Taylor Swift Song Ever,” which poked fun at theories about her music being inspired by past relationships.
She was much more coy on Loose Women in April 2024 when asked directly about rumors that her son inspired some of the songs on The Tortured Poets Department.
“I wasn’t aware she had an album out at all. I haven’t heard anything about it,” Welch joked. “Anyway, I wish her all the best.”
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Healy confirmed his engagement to model and musician Gabbriette in May 2024. At the time, Welch defended her son against accusations that the musician’s engagement announcement was timed to offset bad press from The Tortured Poets Department.
“Engagement aside if anyone thinks the timing of this isn’t intentional you don’t know a bitter toxic man (I do actually think they are a good couple and I hope he is normal to her otherwise),” a Swift fan wrote via X in June 2024.
Welch responded with three laughing face emojis to one very pointed reply: “Not everyone’s lives revolve around Taylor Swift.”
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