At the height of her husband’s fame, Coleen Rooney appeared to be just another WAG: one of the “wives and girlfriends” who trailed around after their footballing partners at tournaments around the world. The assuredly sexist term gained huge popularity during the 2006 World Cup, focusing on Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole and Rooney and implying they were utterly defined by who they were sleeping with.
How things have changed. Having survived her husband Wayne’s occasional indiscretions, and a high-profile, high-risk court case, too, Coleen Rooney is forging a reputation absolutely of her own.
Currently, she is in the jungle in Australia, competing in the latest series of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! – another potentially precarious move, but one she appears to be taking in her stride.
“She is resolute and she is smart,” said the PR consultant Mark Borkowski. “When Coleen was at the heart of things attending events as a WAG, that wasn’t really her. That is not what she was, and it is not what she is now.”
Once the show is over, he predicted TV companies would be “falling at her feet” in an effort to sign her up – though his prediction came with a caveat.
Rooney has certainly come a long way since she grew up in the suburbs of Liverpool, where she met Wayne. They began going out when they were aged 16, married in 2008, and have four children.
Very much in his shadow during his footballing career, the public saw a very different side to Coleen five years ago when she conducted a remarkable “sting” operation to find out who was leaking stories from her private Instagram account to journalists at the Sun.
Rooney identified the culprit with the now infamous words posted on Instagram: “It’s ……… Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
Vardy, who is married to the Leicester City footballer Jamie, denied passing information to the Sun and sued Rooney for libel in an attempt to restore her reputation.
She lost. In a damning high court judgment at the end of what became known as the “Wagatha Christie” trial, Vardy was described as an “untrustworthy witness” who gave evidence that was “inconsistent”, “evasive” or “implausible”.
Rather than rubbing it in, Rooney, 38, reacted by insisting the case should never have gone to trial.
“It was not a case I ever sought or wanted. I never believed it should have gone to court at such expense in times of hardship for so many people when the money could have been far better spent helping others.”
Her sleuthing skills helped her then, and they have been helping her in the jungle, too, where she has surprised other contestants with her ability to call them out when they are deliberately telling fibs.
On one occasion, she rumbled three of her fellow camp mates who claimed they were living in squalor, when in fact they were being treated with luxuries.
Piers Morgan believes she will win the show, writing in his Sun column: “She’s revealing herself to be an incredibly nice, down-to-earth, kind-hearted woman with a great sense of humour.
“I laughed when the jungle campers were asked to put in their orders for the automated treat machine, and as the others asked for chocolate and crisps, Coleen suddenly piped up: “Get us a bottle of vodka!”
Borkowski said the unpredictability of I’m a Celebrity made it a risky proposition for people who go on it, because it was difficult to stick to a game-plan.
“Celebrities tend to go on there to surprise people, to challenge a fixed idea of what the public might think of someone.
“The truth is, Coleen is a very ordinary person. She is a working-class girl, whose father was a bricklayer. She is a committed mother. And she has matured into a very powerful woman.”
He added: “Once the programme is over, any broadcaster would love to have her. They will be falling at her feet. The question is, does she want it? Perhaps post parenthood? She probably doesn’t need it.”
