Coleen Rooney is reported to have commanded the biggest fee of anyone who’s gone into the I’m A Celeb jungle.
I’m not going to lie, the sums being speculated on kind of make me feel a bit ill. I’m personally hoping there’ll be an announcement of it being donated to a charity, maybe in her home city of Liverpool, where thousands of children live in poverty.
But regardless of whether the eye-watering sums being bandied about are true or not, it’s got me thinking what it is about Coleen which has had us all so hooked for over twenty years now. I really, really like her. I think she’s clever, quick-witted, very natural on camera. She’s not the prettiest of the WAGs, nor the coolest. But she’s got that sparkle in her eye, and there’s a nostalgia about her now too, since we’ve ‘known’ her so long.
If you lived in the UK in the early noughties, you’re likely to remember the tabloid press’s instant obsession with England Wonder-kid Wayne’s teenage girlfriend. It seemed like the ultimate cutesy tale of boy and girl next door who go from rags to riches, by way of his insane footballing skills and her sheer likeability. Him in his shellsuit, her in her school uniform and plaited hair.
They married in 2008 at the tender ages of 22 and 23, but the picture perfect love story didn’t last long. Very quickly newspapers were covered in stories of Wayne’s one-night stands, most memorably an alleged liaison with a prostitute old enough to be his Grandmother.
I remember watching and waiting as these stories sporadically leaked out, wondering when Coleen was going to make her big announcement and leave him. After all, she was clearly way too fabulous for a guy who continually disrespected her in such a public way. She was so loved by the media and by the public, people felt sorry for her but they also knew she would go on to have a great career when she finally cut the dead wood that was Wayne. She could be the new Lorraine Kelly, I thought. Or a Loose Woman… hell, ITV will probably give her her own show. The sky’s the limit Coleen babes.
But it never happened. She kept schtum. She followed in a long line of humiliated footballers wives and stood by her man. It all felt like a bit of an anti-climax to me. Almost like she hadn’t fulfilled her potential.
They’ve now got four kids and she’s recently talked publicly about the fact that whilst she and Wayne are still very much together, they live separately, allowing him to pursue his managerial career while she looks after their sons.
So far…so standard.
But then of course came the Wagatha scandal; aka the point we realised we had all underestimated Coleen.
If you haven’t watched the documentary series detailing her court case against Rebekah Vardy; I urge you to call in sick to work and BINGE IT.
In it, Coleen is captivating. Her brains, her balls, her humour, her sheer determination to do what she knew was right. This was a woman who had been betrayed before, don’t forget, and this time she wasn’t standing for it. Watching her walk into that courtroom with her head held high (and her leg in a moon boot bizarrely) was impressive and inspiring.
Sure, the amounts of money spent on that case were disgusting, crass and enough to make any normal person feel uncomfortable. But that’s the world they live in I guess. Footballer’s wages and advertising endorsement deals and appearance fees. But despite the fact her life is so stratospherically different to ours, we feel a kinship with her don’t we?
Watching her in the jungle now, she’s reminiscent of Stacey Solomon, winner of series 10. Sure Coleen isn’t as loud or ditzy, but she has that natural warmth and genuine kindness which is hard to portray unless it’s the real deal.
There’s also the fact that even after all these years of fame and wealth, and living all over the world; she has retained her lovely scouse accent. And us Brits simply love a working-class gal (or guy) who sticks to their roots… none of this ‘forgetting where you come from and getting all high and mighty’ will be accepted thank you very much.
If I was a betting woman, which I absolutely am not by the way; I would put my bottom dollar on her winning this series of ‘I’m a Celebrity: Get me out of here!’, and going on to become a much bigger star than her husband.
It’s been a long time coming, Queen Col.
// Sarah Lawton