She’s known for being married to ex-footballer Wayne Rooney and being unsuccessfully sued by Jamie Vardy’s wife Rebekah. Now Coleen Rooney has signed up for ‘I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!’ for reportedly the biggest fee in the show’s history.
The 38-year-old former model has reportedly picked up a fee worth more than the £1.5 million Reform UK leader Nigel Farage got for appearing on the ITV1 jungle reality show last year. Fans of the Ant and Dec fronted show might be wondering how Coleen could strike such a massive deal for a stint in the jungle, so here we have taken a look into Coleen Rooney’s marriage to Wayne Rooney, net worth, and her life after her infamous Wagatha Christie case.
In 2023, OK Magazine! reported that Coleen’s husband Wayne had a net worth of $170 million, while her net worth was $19 million, which it said was thanks to her decade-long career in the media. That means the couple could have a combined wealth of $189 million, or £155 million in British currency.
Showbiz work and net worthColeen is a star in her own right away from her husband. Her television career started in 2006 with Sir Trevor McDonald on ‘Tonight with Trevor McDonald.’ Coleen presented a segment focusing on Rett syndrome, a condition affecting her younger sister.
She later starred in her ITV series, ‘Coleen’s Real Women’. The show saw her affectionately labelled as “the nation’s favourite girl next door” and sought “real women” for advertising campaigns instead of professional models.
Coleen also penned a column for celebrity magazine Closer called “Welcome to My World.” According to Forbes, Coleen left Closer in 2008 to write a weekly fashion and news column for OK! magazine.
She’s also created and starred in an exercise DVD, fronted a George campaign for a reported £3 million and did a deal with retail and gambling firm Littlewoods. The multi-talented star has even published books - Welcome to My World, Coleen’s Real Style and a four-book series called Coleen Style Queen from 2008 to 2010.
Coleen's transformation has come over the years. in 2023 she was on the cover of Vogue in her home city of Liverpool in a £3,300 Dior coat. Two decades earlier in the same city the then 16-year-old Coleen McLoughlin was being photographed wearing a big black puffer coat and ankle socks as she was introduced as the girlfriend of Everton’s young star Wayne Rooney.
In 2005, aged 18, she was given a Vogue makeover and told the magazine: “I’m not the person the newspapers think I am. And I don’t understand that chav label.”
Marriage to Wayne Rooney
And of course she’s married to ex-England star and now Plymouth Argyle boss Wayne Rooney. According to the Independent the couple first met in Croxteth in Liverpool when they were 12 and were just friends until they were 16.
Coleen wrote in her 2008 memoir, Coleen: Welcome to My World, that they would meet up “at the chippy or the cinema”. In 2008, the pair wed in Portofino, Italy. The celebrity pair share four sons: Kai, 13, Klay, 10, Kit, seven, and Cass, five.
But they’ve weathered some marriage scandals, including Wayne’s alleged affair with sex worker Jennifer Thompson in 2010. Trouble brewed again in 2017 when reporters uncovered that former footballer Wayne had been pulled over at the wheel of another woman’s car and was three times over the drink-drive limit, as reported by the Mirror. Wayne Rooney had met Laura Simpson at a bar before joining her for a drive in her VW Beetle, it was reported.
But the couple have coped and remain married. They have weathered their ups and downs.
A source close to Coleen has told The Sun that her and Wayne's sons Kai, 14, Klay, 11, Kit, eight, and Cass, six, were key in her going Down Under as they enjoyed watching previous series together.
The Sun reported a source saying: “Her boys will love watching her on the show. She isn’t a fan of bugs and creepy-crawlies or sleeping outdoors, but she is up for a challenge and has great determination.”
Coleen will follow in the footsteps of her great rival Rebekah, who is the wife of Premier League striker Jamie Vardy, when she steps out into the jungle. Coleen will hope that she gets to spend longer in the camp than Rebekah, who was voted out by the public reasonably early in the process, when she appeared in the 2017 series.
Wagatha ChristieThe so-called Wagatha Christie case projected Coleen into the limelight and across newspaper front pages. The legal battle between Coleen and Rebecca Vardy even had its own Disney + documentary.
Channel 4 also made a drama about the case starring Michael Sheen. The drama was based on the real-life events of Rebekah Vardy's bid to sue Coleen Rooney.
The real life case began in October 2019 when Coleen accused Rebekah of selling stories about her to a tabloid. She shared a tweet that began: “This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it...”
The tweet went on: “For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing THE SUN newspaper of my private posts and stories. There has been so much information given to them about me, my friends and my family – all without my permission or knowledge. After a long time of trying to figure out who it could be, for various reasons, I had a suspicion.
“To try and prove this, I came up with an idea. I blocked everyone from viewing my Instagram stories except ONE account. (Those on my private account must have been wondering why I haven’t had stories on there for a while.) Over the past five months I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into the Sun newspaper.
"And you know what, they did! The story about gender selection in Mexico, the story about returning to TV and then the latest story about the basement flooding in my new house.
“It’s been tough keeping it to myself and not making any comment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked, however I had to. Now I know for certain with account/individual it’s come from. I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s ……….Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
The case was dubbed Wagatha Christie after Rooney began investigating. The title combines WAG - the acronym for the wives and girlfriends of prominent British footballers - and the name of Agatha Christie.
In June 2020, Vardy started action in the High Court to sue Rooney for defamation. The case dragged on for two years, bringing even more attention to both women.
The case ended up in court with eye watering fees and endless media coverage. It concluded on July 29, 2022, when Rebekah Vardy lost her libel case against Coleen in the HIgh Court.
The judge ruled that Rooney’s statements were substantially true, and ordered Vardy to pay 90% of Rooney’s legal costs, which were estimated to be over £1.8 million.
Now there's a new rivalry of sorts in the jungle. Coleen will follow rival Rebekah, who is the wife of Premier League striker Jamie Vardy, when she goes onto I'm a Celebrity. She is probably hoping to spend longer in the camp than Rebekah, who was voted out by the public fairly early on when she appeared in the 2017 series.
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! returns to ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on Sunday, November 17
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