The mum-of-four is trading her life of luxury for ITV’s toughest entertainment challenge
Excitement is building as I’m A Celebrity returns to our screens tonight. The 24th season of TV’s toughest entertainment challenge will get underway at 9pm with a special launch episode.
Ant and Dec are back as hosts and will welcome a new batch of celebrities into the Australian camp. Ten celebrities have been confirmed so far to be trading their lives of luxury for the ITV show.
Coleen Rooney has been named as part of the line-up for the upcoming season of the show. The 38-year-old, who is married to former Everton striker Wayne Rooney, explained why now is the perfect time to take on the I’m A Celeb challenge as she revealed she has previously turned down the opportunity.
In a message shared with her Instagram followers this week, the mum-of-four said: “I’ve always said no and put it off because the kids have been young and I’ve had quite a lot on. But this year, I thought, I quite fancy doing it.
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She added: “I would like to experience something different, do something for myself, meet new people. I’m looking forward to doing the trials.”
Coleen admitted she was worried about the prospect of leaving behind her children, who are named Kai, Klay, Kit and Cass. She added: “Don’t get me wrong. I’m really anxious about leaving the kids. That’s been my biggest thing. I’ve come to terms with it. I’ve planned and prepped.
“I’ve got an army of family and friends all helping out with the kids so they are going to be fine. They are probably going to have a great time while I’m away.”
In her message, Coleen also hit back at incorrect rumours that she is exempt from trials due to health reasons. The Croxteth native shared the truth as she said: “There’s been a lot of news saying I can’t do trials because of certain illnesses, but I can confirm I can do every trial so I’m not excluded for any.
“That was just a load of rubbish.” Coleen hopes to dispel any misconceptions the public may have of her and is hoping to go as far as possible in her bid to be crowned Queen of the Jungle.
She said: “Of course it would be lovely to win. But if I don’t, then I will get to see the kids! Whatever I do in life, I like to put my all into it and so if I am going in there, it would be nice to stay until the end.
“Why would I go in there and then want to come out after week one? I want to go as far as I can but perhaps more importantly I have spoken with others who have taken part and they have all said that it was an experience that was a once in a lifetime opportunity and will probably never come again so wanted to get the most out of it, so I am excited to be a part of it”
She continued: “I am really looking forward to I’m A Celebrity now and I hope I can make my family proud – no pressure!”
I’m A Celebrity comes after a turbulent period in Coleen’s life when she was massively in the public eye after she accused Rebekah Vardy’s Instagram account of selling stories about her to the press. Coleen subsequently won the high profile Wagatha Christie libel battle and has previously spoken about how she hopes to move on from the incident
She released an autobiography last year and appeared in a Disney + documentary series that she hoped would draw a line under the Wagatha Christie trial. The book and documentary also provided an insight into other testing moments of Coleen’s life.
Coleen has been married to Wayne Rooney since 2008 and she has stood by her husband throughout a number of testing moments. In the Disney+ documentary, Coleen admitted she was heartbroken and told Wayne she “couldn’t carry on with this” after the most recent incident in 2017.
While expecting her fourth child with the former footballer, Coleen received a grovelling phone call from her husband after he’d been pictured in a car with “party girl” Laura Simpson following a boozy night out.
After meeting Laura in a bar, Wayne drove the two of them home in her VW Beetle. The night out went from bad to worse when police pulled them over due to a faulty brake light and discovered Wayne was three times over the drink drive limit.
In the documentary, Coleen said: “I was in the airport and I got a phone call and it was Wayne. I just said what’s gone on? Straightaway you don’t get much out of him. You don’t get a lot of information.
“It was just sickening. I’ve had that feeling in my stomach a few times and I would never wish anyone to feel that. You do think, do I actually know this person, when things like that happen. Y’know, ‘You’re not the person I married and the person I want you to be.’
“He just said, ‘I’m sorry I’m sorry’. And I said well, ‘You can’t be sorry because you know it’s wrong what you’ve done’ and I just kept saying ‘you’re stupid, you are just so stupid’.”
Wayne responds saying: “Of course she wasn’t happy. But if I’m being honest, I can’t even remember speaking to the girl in the bar, never met before in my life. So there was never any talk of anything happening or anything was gonna happen.
“You know, I’m driving another girl’s car and she’s in the passenger seat, it doesn’t look great. I know what it was. But I also know what it looked like.”
Coleen added: “I was just heartbroken. I just said ‘I can’t stay in the house’ and I went and stayed in my mum’s with the children.”
However, Coleen didn’t want to split the family and the couple eventually worked through the problem. She appeared on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast this week and explained the reason why she stood by her husband throughout these trying moments.
She said: “With me and Wayne, 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 forget about it and go your own separate ways. But there’s always been love, there’s always been.
“We’ve never wanted to part but situations have set in where it could have happened and we mightn’t have got through it but we have. That’s the way I’ve got to look at it. Hopefully it’s going to be a nice smooth sailing marriage 1731822301.
“I don’t know if you can get one of them.” I’m A Celebrity gets underway tonight on ITV and ITV X at 9pm.
