Wayne Rooney, England’s record goal scorer, has enjoyed a stellar football career, but his personal life has had its share of scandals and ups and downs over the years.
Wayne and his wife Coleen Rooney, who are parents to four boys have faced intense public scrutiny due to the footballer ’s past indiscretions. Recently, Coleen shared that she has "learned to live" with his behaviour.
During ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, Coleen opened up to Oti Mabuse about Wayne’s career as a professional footballer and the challenges of being thrust into the public spotlight at such a young age, reports OK.
She revealed: “All he wanted to do was play football, he struggled with the fame side of it, he hated that. If he could’ve just played football and had none of the fame I think he would’ve been happier within life.
“He’s made mistakes along the way, but from 16, obviously you’re going to, that’s life.” Oti agreed, saying: “You have to learn to be resilient at a young age, but he didn’t ask for that and it’s quite unfair on him as well that he had to be so strong so young.”
Reflecting on their young marriage at 22 and their engagement at 17/18, Coleen explained: "We felt older, because we had to grow up quickly, living in the public eye. A paparazzi took a photograph of me going to school, and it was in the national papers. It’s been difficult times."
She added: "Since the first mistake he made, which was in the public eye, people haven’t forgiven. When things happened, the public wanted it to be over, to see us split. But the truth is, there’s always been love there. It has been difficult, but we’re happy now. After all these years… we’re a team."
Although the couple has been married since 2008, their relationship has been plagued by cheating scandals dating back to earlier years, with reports of Wayne's involvement with three prostitutes in 2002.
In a clip from the documentary, Coleen revealed: "I think the first time [he cheated], we were young, so there was a lot of arguing."
In 2002, during the start of his football career when he was only 16, Wayne was caught on CCTV visiting a massage parlour ten different times for £45 a session. He paid Charlotte Glover, aged 21, £140 to sleep with her – later revealing he left her an autograph as a souvenir once they were finished.
The following month, it was reported he had an encounter with a 48-year-old grandmother, known as 'Auld Slapper,' dressed in a rubber catsuit.
After the story surfaced in 2004, Wayne later apologised, stating: "Foolish as it now seems, I did, on occasions, visit massage parlours and prostitutes."
"I now regret it deeply and hope people can understand that it was the kind of mistake you make when you're young and stupid. It happened when I was very young and immature," Wayne said.
Later, Coleen wrote in her autobiography that she had forgiven him because the encounters took place before their relationship became serious.
"The truth is, and I've never said this before, at that time in our relationship I'd never even slept with Wayne," she said. "I was only 16 and we weren't having that kind of relationship at that stage. We used to meet at the chippy or the cinema."
In 2009, while Coleen was pregnant with their first child, Wayne was reported to have paid prostitute Jenny Thompson £1200 per night on seven separate occasions. Jenny later appeared on Ex on The Beach, where she described the footballer as "nothing special" and revealed she used untraceable pay-as-you-go phones to arrange their meet-ups.
Coleen temporarily left the family home after Kai was born but forgave Wayne before the end of the World Cup.
However, the following year, it was reported that Wayne had paid Jenny and another woman for a threesome. Both Jenny and Helen Wood later publicly apologised to Coleen, claiming that Wayne had "instantly regretted" what happened.
"Why the hell did I do that?" he reportedly asked the women while sitting on the hotel bed in a bathrobe. "I feel really s**t already - I'm begging you two not to say anything. It will ruin my marriage if it gets out. Having a kid means everything to me," Helen, who later won Celebrity Big Brother, claimed he said.
Coleen forgave Wayne, and they went on to have sons Klay in 2013 and Kit in 2016. However, in 2017, while Coleen was pregnant with their fourth child, Wayne was arrested for drink driving with a woman in the passenger seat of his car. It is believed that Coleen called Laura Simpson, who maintained that nothing had occurred between them.
"She asked me to tell her what happened," Laura told The Sun on Sunday. "She seemed unhappy that we had left a nightclub in a cab together to go to my car."
The mum-of-one then claimed the footballer eyed her breasts before they shared a “kiss and cuddle,” later adding, "We would have ended up sh*****g, no doubt."
Coleen forgave Wayne in an emotional public statement, acknowledging that she had come very close to ending their relationship. The striker later admitted: “Sometimes you make mistakes. I held my hands up. I made a mistake. I knew right away it was a stupid mistake, and I had to move on.
"It’s not easy. I have children, and it’s not nice for them to see that. I try to move forward and learn from it, which I believe I am doing."
The footballer later pleaded guilty, receiving a two-year driving ban and an order to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
In 2019, just before the Rooneys temporarily moved to Washington DC, Wayne was arrested for public intoxication after arriving on a flight from Saudi Arabia.
An incident report stated: "Mr. Rooney had a strong odour of alcoholic beverage on his person, slurred speech, and was unsteady on his feet, and was not traveling with anyone. Mr. Rooney was placed under arrest for public intoxication."
The sports star later explained that he had been left "disorientated" by prescribed sleeping tablets he took during the flight while drinking.
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A month later, while Coleen was in the UK, Wayne was seen partying late into the night with barmaid Vicki Rosiek at Florida’s Clearwater Beach. Later that same year, while Coleen was again away, Wayne was spotted walking through a hotel lobby and into the elevator with a mystery woman at 5:36 am after another night of partying.
However, at the time Coleen took off her wedding ring creating rumours that their marriage was ending.
In the Amazon Prime documentary Rooney, Coleen shared that she believes alcohol played a major role in Wayne's past behaviour.
Coleen said: "But I do think that alcohol has a lot to blame...and still has, from things that have happened recently. I think it’s not a good thing for Wayne to be unsupervised.”
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