Coleen Rooney says she stayed with husband Wayne Rooney despite his cheating because "there was always love there" and described themselves as a team who grew up together.
The 38-year-old is heading into the I'm A Celebrity jungle shortly and ahead of her adventure she gave an interview discussing her marriage, children and looking to the future after the Wagatha Christie court case with Rebecca Vardy.
Coleen and former England and Everton star Wayne have been together since she was 16, and during the early days of their relationship Wayne had paid for sex with prostitutes as a teenager. Then after he married Coleen in 2008, further stories emerged in 2010 about a threesome with escorts Jenny Thompson and Helen Wood which happened the previous year, as well as date nights out with Jenny.
But more recently their marriage has been a settled and loving one as they bring up their four sons and Wayne begins life as a football manager.
Coleen said: "I think we've been together, we've known each other from a young age.
"We gone through the hard times together, we've gone through the good times together, and we know each other well. I know that sounds like...but you find some couples and they don't actually know each other that well. I always say, if you ask me what me and Wayne are, I would say we're a team and we've helped each other through life.
"And there's things that we're good at seeing the better outcome rather than the worst. And I don't know whether that's something that I can take credit for, but I was brought up with that outlook of life. You know, my dad's always said, 'there's worse the situations than what you're going through. It goes through my head 'come on Coleen get a grip' and that has always got me through things."
She added: “With me and Wayne, you know, I've always said, there was always love still there. So why throw it away when you can work at it?
"If you work at it and it doesn't work, then, you know, forget about it then, and go your own separate ways.
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Getty Images for Disney+)"But there's always been love. We've never wanted to part, but situations are set in where it could have happened. And, you know, we might not have got through it, but we have and that's the way I have to look at it. And hopefully it will be like that for the rest, a nice, smooth sailing marriage."
Speaking to Fearne Cotton on the Happy Place podcast, Coleen also said they discussed things frankly as a couple when there were problems. She said: "Just get it out on the table and say it, there is no point keeping it in. Even with the kids I say get it out and take your punishment."
On a more positive note she said she felt it was important that she got some "me time" each day which was normally a gym session. She is enjoying pilates at the moment which will help give her strength in the jungle for any trials.
She also insists her and Wayne get quality time together and still went on dates to keep the romance alive. In their case this sometimes means not even leaving their property, but sneaking to the annex of the house to watch Netflix with a takeaway for time apart from the kids; Kai, 15, Klay, 11, Kit, 8, and Cass, six.
Coleen said: "I've always made time for me and Wayne to go and have time together. And I do it with the kids as well, they love that one on one time."
On their dates she added: “Most of the time we talk about life, the kids do creep in at some point[in conversation], but I think we do and you have a laugh again, and that's good to have that.
"And I think because you're not doing it all the time, which it would be a perfect life if you could do that all the time, but them times that you do it feels like a treat. And I think that's nice.
"And we even...when we first moved into the house we live in now, we've got like an annex, so we got a babysitter in one night and we had the kids on this Life 360 app, so you can detect on their devices, you can detect the older one if he was coming home from school, I know where the school bus is. And so we said 'right, we're going out, see you later'.
"But we never, we went to the annex because we couldn't be bothered.
"We just wanted the night to watch some TV. We got a takeaway and we got a ping of a message. And they were like 'where are you?'.
"And we're like, oh, 'we've gone out' telling the little fib. And he went 'no, you're not, you're over in the annex'.
"I was like, oh, oh yeah. I was thinking, you can't do any of them without getting caught out. But even simple things like that, just to sit down and watch a bit of TV.”
Coleen also spoke about approaching turning 40 and looking ahead to the future, as she appears to be relaunching her career.
She said: "Do you know what? I don't really think of age. I think as long as you feel young and able to do things, I think age, people say it's just a number.
"But no, saying that, when I got to 30, I remember being on holiday just before my 30th birthday, and a bit of anxiety set in. But I don't know why. It was strange.
"It was like, am, is this because I'm turning 30, I don't know, it was weird.
"I think, you know, just want the kids to still be happy and successful in what they're doing, and, you know, they're all going down different paths and enjoying different things, which is good. I would like to be still active and just, yes, still have a happy house, a happy mad house."
Previously this year Coleen had said she feels “closure” on her clash with Rebekah Vardy over their Twitter row and the Wagatha Christie court case. And she made it clear she hopes to move on from it now.
She told the Happy Place podcast: "That was a really stressful time. And to be honest with you, like now I've put it all behind me. I've released that stress.
"And I think, I just, I'm just looking forward to not dwelling on that. Again, going back to a support group, and that has always been my friends and family. I think if I didn't have them, maybe I might not have got through it, but I did."
* The full interview with Coleen Rooney is on the Happy Place podcast with Fearne Cotton, out now.
English (US) ·