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Coleen Rooney has reportedly signed up to appear on this year’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! series.
The wife of former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, who recently won the high-profile “Wagatha Christie” libel case filed against her by Rebekkah Vardy, is said to have secured the biggest deal in the show’s history with a fee of over £1.5m.
Rooney, 38, will fly out to Australia next month to join the ITV reality series hosted by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, with producers hoping she’ll share stories of her life with Wayne, sources have said.
Rooney will follow in the footsteps of Vardy, who entered the I’m A Celeb jungle in 2017 and was the third campmate of the cohort to be eliminated.
“I’m A Celeb bosses have pulled off a huge coup getting Coleen for the jungle this year and the team are thrilled to have her on board,” a source told The Sun.
“Coleen has a huge fanbase and she won massive plaudits for her classy handling of the Wagatha Christie case. She’s excited to show fans a different side to her and prove she can survive without her creature comforts.”
They added: “The campfire chats are set to be bombshells as there is so much she could lift the lid on, from all the drama of the Wagatha trial to her turbulent marriage to Wayne and his football career.
“She is expected to be very popular with viewers and she could triumph over Becky again if she goes further in the competition than her.”
An ITV spokesperson told The Independent: “Any names suggested for I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! are just speculation.”
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It comes shortly after the Wagatha Christie case was thrust back into the limelight earlier this week when Vardy was ordered to pay Rooney a further £100,000 following their legal battle.
Vardy lost her libel claim against Rooney in July 2022 when Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that her viral social media post accusing Mrs Vardy of leaking her private information to the press was “substantially true”.
The judge later ordered Vardy, the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, to pay 90 per cent of Mrs Rooney’s costs, including an initial payment of £800,000.
In the October 2019 viral social media post at the heart of the libel claim, Rooney said she had carried out a months-long “sting operation” and accused Vardy of leaking information about her private life to the press.
Rooney publicly claimed Vardy’s account was the source behind three stories in The Sun newspaper featuring fake details she had posted on her private Instagram profile – featuring her travelling to Mexico for a “gender selection” procedure, her planning to return to TV and the basement flooding at her home.
Following the high-profile trial, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in Rooney’s favour, finding it was “likely” that Vardy’s agent, Caroline Watt, had passed information to The Sun and that she “knew of and condoned this behaviour”.
Rooney welcomed her victory in the “Wagatha Christie” case, but added that she “never believed it should have gone to court” and that “it was not a case I ever sought or wanted”.
