I’m a Celebrity 2024 features Coleen Rooney, an OG WAG bringing style, class and her detective skills to the jungle.
Since shooting to fame in the early 2000s for being the girlfriend of a famous footballer, Coleen Rooney – who is on I’m A Celeb on Sunday (December 1) – has forged her own path through magazine columns, book deals and becoming a style icon.
But what happened with fellow WAG Rebekah Vardy that left Coleen facing a £1 million lawsuit? And why did the WAGs become so popular? Keep reading to find out…
What I’m A Celebrity 2024 Coleen Rooney is famous for
Coleen Rooney is one of the original WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends) – her claim to fame came decades before her stint on I’m A Celebrity. Married to football legend Wayne Rooney, she shot to fame in the early 2000s along with Wayne’s career.
Coleen Rooney, formerly McLoughlin, was born and grew up in Liverpool, Merseyside to parents of Irish descent. She attended St John Bosco Arts College, where she achieved outstanding results in performing arts.
How did Coleen and Wayne Rooney meet?
Coleen met her future husband, Wayne, when she was just 12 years old as they both grew up in Croxteth, Liverpool. Just after they left secondary school, at the age of 16, they started officially dating.
A year later, a 17-year-old Wayne was signed to Everton, and Coleen remained his number one fan attending many of his football games.
The two teenage lovebirds became UK icons as Coleen continued to support Wayne through his early career when he represented England, and later joined Manchester United.
Her hubby is apparently worried about her signing up for I’m a Celebrity 2024, though, and the relationship secrets she may spill.
Wayne Rooney’s scandals
The footballer’s been embroiled in more scandals than most of us have had hot dinners.
Back in 2004, it emerged that Wayne cheated on Coleen with a slew of sex workers at a Liverpool brothel. The Sunday Mirror reported that a teenage Wayne had paid £140 for sex and gave one escort his autograph as a “souvenir”.
That same year he reportedly slept with a 37-year-old sex worker, and it was alleged he visited the same brothel 10 times. It was also reported that he slept with a grandmother who was then 48.
Two years after marriage, and in 2010, former escort Helen Wood claimed Wayne had a threesome with her and another escort.
Wayne reportedly had a night of passion with Helen and Jenny Thompson. At the time, Coleen was five months pregnant with their first child at home. Helen later claimed that Wayne was “full of remorse” after they allegedly had sex. He is also said to have shown her pictures of Coleen’s ultrasound scans.
Coleen Rooney’s reaction to Wayne’s drink-driving
Their relationship seemed to go without a blip for a few years. But in 2017, Wayne found himself embroiled in a drink-drive scandal that saw him arrested. However, to make matters worse for the former Manchester United star, he was driving the car of Laura Simpson, a woman he’d met during a boozy night out.
Wayne later had his say. “Of course she wasn’t happy. But if I’m being honest, I can’t even remember speaking to the girl in the bar, never met [her] before in my life,” he said.
“So there was never any talk of anything happening or anything was going to happen. You know, I’m driving another girl’s car and she’s in the passenger seat, it doesn’t look great. I know what it was. But I also know what it looked like,” he then added.
Coleen then confessed that she was “heartbroken” by her husband’s actions and revealed she went and stayed at her mum’s with the children. Ultimately, Coleen went back to the family home “for the sake of the kids. To make life easier for us as a family.”
WAGs became more popular than footballers
The term WAG was first coined in 2002 to reference the ‘Wives and Girlfriends’ of professional footballers.
The WAGs held a strange fascination for the British public who wanted to know everything about not only the footballers but who they were dating.
In 2002, Wayne scored his first premier league goal for Everton and Coleen was papped for the first time. She was only 16 and this is when her difficult relationship with the media began.
During the 2006 World Cup, the WAG term really exploded when 22 out of 23 of the England footballers wives and girlfriends went for a spa day in Baden Baden, Germany.
This group was lead by ‘Queen WAG’ Victoria Beckham and, along with Coleen, contained Abbey Clancy and Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole.
This designer-clad group were photographed walking the streets of Baden Baden, dancing on nightclub tables and hitting up the boutique shops. They received more news coverage than their goal-scoring counterparts.
It was a ‘circus’
The WAGs received backlash in the media for their apparent obsession with champagne and their own reflection.
Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand called Baden Baden “a circus” and accused the WAGs of distracting their men from the field.
He told The Guardian: “People were worrying more about what people were wearing and where they were going out, rather than the England football team.”
Ferdinand believed the team would have a better chance if they has less contact with their families.
Ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the England manager Fabio Capello announced the wives and girlfriends would only be allowed to visit players one day a week. England was knocked out of the tournament even earlier than in 2006.
Coleen and Wayne got married in a picturesque location
The couple married in June 2008 in a lavish Italian Riviera ceremony. OK! magazine reportedly paid the newly-dubbed ‘Wayleen’ £2.5 million for an exclusive on their Portofino wedding.
In Coleen’s autobiography, My Account, she opened up about how there was “a lot of security” to ensure no images of the celebration were leaked. Coleen’s gown fell in ruffled layers with a strapless bodice. She wore a simple veil and carried a white bouquet.
The pair walked down the isle of the ancient chapel under an archway decorated in white florals. The ceremony took place by candlelight as they were married by the couple’s childhood priest.
The celebrity couple were both 22 at the time and spared no expense on the special day, estimated to have cost an eye-watering £5 million. The newlyweds then moved into a new £1.3 million mansion in Formby.
All of this sounds a far cry from the I’m a Celebrity 2024 jungle!
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Coleen and Wayne Rooney’s children
The couple have four children born, all between 2009 and 2018.
Coleen had their first child, Kai Rooney, in November 2009. Kai is now 14 and following in his father’s footsteps winning trophies in the Red Devils’ academy system.
Their second son, Klay Anthony, arrived in May 2013 and their third child, Kit, was born in January 2016.
The youngest son, Cass, was born in February 2018, making it a total of four sons for the couple.
I’m A Celebrity star Coleen Rooney on other shows
At the peak of her fame in 2008, Coleen hosted one series of her own reality show: Coleen’s Real Women.
In the series, this ‘British fashionista’ searched for “regular women” to compete for high-profile modelling jobs.
In the series she found women to front campaigns for major brands such as Avon, Sweaty Betty and Schwarzkopf.
During the filming of this series Coleen was dubbed the “nation’s favourite girl next door”.
Coleen’s younger sister Rosie died at just 14 years old
Coleen had a younger sister, Rosie, who her parents fostered, and she had a lifelong battle with Rett syndrome. This is a rare genetic disorder that affects brain development, resulting in severe mental and physical disability.
Coleen supported her mum in caring for Rosie when she was first fostered by doing her hair and choosing her clothes. Rosie sadly passed away in 2013 at the age of 14, and Coleen and Wayne released a statement on behalf of the family at the time.
“Throughout her life, she brought so much love and happiness to all our family and everyone who knew and met her. She was such a strong little girl and an inspiration to us all,” it read.
How did the Rebekah Vardy dispute begin?
On October 9, 2019, Coleen “set the internet ablaze” with a Twitter, now X, post.
The post accused Rebekah Vardy of repeatedly leaking private information about her to The Sun.
In a great act of deception, Coleen has blocked all her followers on Instagram except Vardy and ‘leaked’ a series of false stories to see if they would make their way to the press.
“And you know what, they did!” she wrote. She apparently saved and screenshotted the only person to view the stories and that was Rebekah Vardy.
This operation earned Rooney the title Wagatha Christie.
Later in the day, Vardy denied the allegations claiming she didn’t “need the money”, and therefore had nothing to gain from leaking the stories.
Rooney Vs Vardy in High Court
On June 23, 2020, eight months after the original tweet, it emerged that Vardy had launched a £1 million High Court defamation lawsuit against Rooney.
This court case would continue for two years. Rebekah claimed she had suffered “widespread abuse and hostility” due to the post.
It emerged that Vardy’s former agent, Caroline Watt, allegedly took ownership for the leakage in a private WhatsApp exchange with Vardy.
Watt claimed they lost their phone in the North Sea which Rooney’s legal team claimed as “destruction or loss of evidence”.
Vardy lost her High Court libel case on July 29, 2022, bringing the Wagatha Christie saga to an end.
Let’s hope Coleen Rooney can bring these same negotiating skills to the I’m a Celebrity 2024 jungle.
Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story
In 2023, Hulu released a documentary on the friction between these two footballers wives called Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story.
This documentary promised to share Coleen’s side of the story in a three-hour look behind the scenes of all the drama that unfolded.
It also showed Coleen revisiting her childhood, marriage, the tragedy of her sister’s passing, and much more. The series has just dropped on ITVX.
I’m A Celebrity with Coleen Rooney continues on Sunday (December 1) at 9pm on ITV1.
Read more: Coleen Rooney ‘could be ruled out of string of I’m A Celeb trials’
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