EXCLUSIVEI made a promise to Wayne Rooney because of the extraordinary thing he did for me one night, reveals KATIE HIND. Because of his behaviour, I’ve had to break it…but it reveals the kind of man he is Read more⬇️

My heart was racing as I rummaged through my gold clutch bag. My phone had disappeared as I was sitting in a London hotel bar. Please let it be in my bag, I prayed.

Before I could go into a full-on meltdown, the man sitting opposite me began to search on the floor, telling me not to worry and that it would turn up.

That man was Wayne Rooney, then Manchester United and England’s star striker. We were enjoying a late drink at the Royal Lancaster Hotel after he’d been named Player of the Year by the prestigious Football Writers’ Association, back in the spring of 2010.

Having flown in for the night from Majorca where he was holidaying with wife Coleen and their baby Kai (who stayed in the sunshine while Wayne flew back for the do), he celebrated with a nightcap and a gossip with me after a colleague had arranged for us to meet.

Clearly star-struck by Wayne, then just 24, I had momentarily taken my eyes off of my beloved Blackberry and it had been swiped from under my nose.

I called the waiters for help and asked Wayne’s manager, the terrifying Paul Stretford, who was sitting beside him, if he had seen it. Nothing.

Then a miracle happened: Wayne spotted two women hovering around our table and summoned them over. He insisted one of them open her handbag, which she did and, seconds later, he hauled my phone out and handed it back to me.

Elated, I hugged Wayne. He was furious on my behalf and insisted the women were thrown out of the luxury hotel. As we left, I thanked him profusely and vowed never to write a bad word about him. Given some of his behaviour over the ensuing years, it is a promise I have had to break.

But since that evening, I have referred to Wayne, now the manager of Championship team Plymouth Argyle, as my knight in shining armour, and whenever any of his critics dare to lambast him, I jump to his defence.

The Mail's Katie Hind with chivalrous Wayne Rooney who came to her rescue when her phone was stolen
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The Mail’s Katie Hind with chivalrous Wayne Rooney who came to her rescue when her phone was stolen

And now, thanks to Coleen signing up to the I’m A Celebrity jungle, I’m no longer alone in seeing him as a thoroughly decent man.

His drunken antics have earned him a bad-boy image that he’s been unable to shrug off, but now it appears Coleen’s star turn in the show is helping to rehabilitate her troubled husband, too.

For those not au fait with Wayne’s misdemeanours, they began 20 years ago when he was just a teen playing for Everton and was caught paying prostitutes at a Liverpool brothel.

Next, in 2009, it was revealed he had enjoyed a threesome with escorts Jenny Thompson and Helen Wood at the five-star Lowry Hotel in Manchester while Coleen was pregnant with Kai (they now have four boys: Kai, 14, Klay, 11, Kit, eight and Cass, six).

Wayne’s most recent wrongdoing was in the summer of 2017, when he was arrested for driving Cheshire estate agent Laura Simpson’s car while over the drink-driving limit. Coleen was pregnant with Cass at the time.

But all of that was long forgotten last weekend, when proud Wayne, who has been watching Coleen on the ITV series every night since it began on November 17, posted on social media praising his wife and encouraging his followers to vote for her to do a Bushtucker trial.

He wrote on Instagram: ‘Me and the boys would love to see her doing a trial and we know she’d want to put herself to the test… let’s get voting.’

Wayne’s calls were answered: during Saturday’s episode, Coleen, 38, received the highest number of votes to face the trial alongside the BBC Radio 1 presenter, Dean McCullough, 32. Surprised by his influence over the public vote, Wayne joked on X: ‘Think I could be in trouble here. Good luck!

He also appeared on the jungle’s spin-off show, I’m A Celebrity…Unpacked, telling host Joel Dommett: ‘I’d love to see Coleen do a trial, I think she’d be great, really good at them as well.

 

Coleen with her boys - Kit, Kai, Wayne, Klay and Cass
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Coleen with her boys – Kit, Kai, Wayne, Klay and Cass

‘I think she’s showing her kind and caring personality and her character, that’s coming across strong. It’s great to see her in there and settling in over the past few days.’

Wayne said he was missing his wife of 16 years ‘so much’, saying the past two weeks have been the longest they haven’t spoken since meeting as 12-year-olds on a council estate in Croxteth, Liverpool.

He said: ‘It’s been the longest I’ve been without speaking to her since we were kids. For the children, it’s difficult obviously… not being able to speak to their mum.

‘Coleen’s parents are helping out massively because, I’m over in Plymouth living there at the minute with my work. There’s a good team looking after the kids and making sure everything is done with the children. We’re missing her, but we’re enjoying watching her as well.’

Coleen’s Bushtucker trial was certainly a gruesome ordeal. She was locked in the back of a van with hordes of cockroaches, rats, giant mealworms and crickets. But she was unflappable, successfully winning nine stars for camp alongside Dean.

It was somewhat predictable that as soon as it emerged Coleen was jetting out to Australia – 10,000 miles away from the family’s £20 million super-mansion in Cheshire – there was lurid chatter on social media that Wayne might take the opportunity to be a lad again. But associates of the 39-year-old star say that nowadays he lives a quiet life in Salcombe, Devon, while at work, before driving back home to Cheshire as soon as he can.

‘Wayne and Coleen are so solid,’ said one friend. ‘He is so proud of her and is at home keeping things together for when she gets back. That is what he is focusing on.

Enduring the I'm A Celebrity Bushtucker Trial in which Coleen was locked in the back of a van with hordes of cockroaches, rats, giant mealworms and crickets
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Enduring the I’m A Celebrity Bushtucker Trial in which Coleen was locked in the back of a van with hordes of cockroaches, rats, giant mealworms and crickets

The cohave
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The couple have endured very public ups and downs, and loyalties have been tested, but they have weathered the storm

 


‘There are no temptations, he is just cracking on with work, being a dad and, of course, watching I’m A Celeb with a takeaway. It isn’t what people are probably imagining, but this is grown-up Wayne.’

He was said to be ‘cross’ at vile sexual chants about his wife by Watford fans at Plymouth’s Home Park Stadium last Friday.

Insiders at the football club say that they were all ‘horrified’, especially as Wayne has been involved in local out-reach projects to support vulnerable women.

A spokesman for the club told me they are working closely with the charities Trevi, which provides safe spaces for women recovering from abuse and violence, and M.A.N: Culture, which provides space for men and boys to have honest conversations about masculinity and male violence against women.

‘Wayne has found himself, as he approaches 40 next year,’ says one source close to the star.

‘He always struggled with fame and it manifested in many different ways, but he’s content now and can’t wait for Coleen to come home as queen of the jungle!’

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