My heart was racing as I rummaged through my gold clutch. My phone had disappeared while I was sitting in the bar of a London hotel. Please leave it in my bag, I prayed.
Before I could completely break down, the man sitting in front of me started searching the ground, telling me not to worry and that he would appear.
That man was Wayne Rooney, then Manchester United and England’s star striker. We were enjoying a drink at the Royal Lancaster Hotel after he was named Player of the Year by the prestigious Football Writers’ Association, back in the spring of 2010.
Having flown in for the night from Mallorca, where he was on holiday with wife Coleen and baby Kai (who stayed out in the sun while Wayne flew back to do so), he celebrated with a drink and gossiping with me after a colleague had arranged an appointment. us to find each other.
Clearly dazzled by Wayne, then only 24 years old, I had momentarily taken my eyes off my beloved Blackberry and had it snatched from under my nose.
I called the waiters for help and asked Wayne’s manager, the terrifying Paul Stretford, who was sitting next to him, if he had seen it. Nothing.
Then a miracle happened: Wayne saw two women hanging around our table and called them over. She insisted that one of them open her bag, which she did, and seconds later, she pulled out my phone and handed it back to me.
Elated, I hugged Wayne. He was furious for me and insisted that the women be kicked out of the luxury hotel. When we left, I thanked him profusely and promised to never write a bad word about him. Given some of his behavior over the next few years, it’s a promise I’ve had to break.
But since that night, I have referred to Wayne, now coach of the championship team Plymouth Argyle, as my knight in shining armor, and whenever one of his critics dares to lash out at him, I come to his defense.
The Mail’s Katie Hind with the gentlemanly Wayne Rooney who came to her rescue when her phone was stolen
And now, thanks to Coleen signing up for the I’m A Celebrity jungle, I’m no longer the only one who sees him as a completely decent man.
His drunken antics have earned him a bad boy image that he’s been unable to ignore, but now it looks like Coleen’s starring role on the show is also helping to rehabilitate her troubled husband.
For those unaware of Wayne’s misdemeanors, they began 20 years ago when he was just a teenager playing for Everton and was caught paying prostitutes in a Liverpool brothel.
Then, in 2009, it was revealed that 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 children: Kai, 14, Klay, 11, Kit, eight and Cass, six).
Wayne’s most recent offense was in the summer of 2017, when he was arrested for driving Cheshire estate agent Laura Simpson’s car while over the drink-drive limit. Coleen was pregnant with Cass at the time.
But all that was forgotten last weekend, when proud Wayne, who has been watching Coleen on the ITV soap every night since it began on November 17, posted on social media praising his wife and encouraging her followers to vote for her to make a Bushtucker Trial.
He wrote on Instagram: “The boys and I would love to see her taking a test and we know she would want to test herself…let’s start voting.”
Wayne’s calls were answered: during Saturday’s episode, Coleen, 38, received the highest number of votes to stand trial alongside BBC Radio 1 presenter Dean McCullough, 32. Surprised by his influence on the public vote, Wayne joked on X: ‘I think I might have trouble here.’ Good luck!
She also appeared on the jungle spin-off show I’m A Celebrity…Unpacked, telling host Joel Domett: “I’d love to see Coleen audition, I think she’d be great, really good at it.” also.
Coleen with your kids: Kit, Kai, Wayne, Klay and Cass.
“I think it’s showing his kind, caring personality and his character, which seems strong.” “It’s great to see her there and settling in for the last few days.”
Wayne said he missed his wife of 16 years “so much”, and said the last two weeks have been the longest they have not spoken since they met when they were 12 on a council estate in Croxteth, Liverpool.
He said: “It’s been the longest I’ve gone without speaking to her since we were kids.” For children, it’s obviously difficult… not being able to talk to their mother.
‘Coleen’s parents are helping enormously because I’m in Plymouth living there at the moment with my job. There is a good team looking after the children and making sure everything is done with them. “We miss her, but we also enjoy seeing her.”
Coleen’s trial against Bushtucker was certainly a gruesome ordeal. They locked her in the back of a van with hordes of cockroaches, rats, giant mealworms and crickets. But she remained unfazed and earned nine stars for the camp alongside Dean.
It was somewhat predictable that as soon as it became known that Coleen was heading to Australia (10,000 miles from the family’s £20 million supermansion in Cheshire), there were lurid rumors on social media that Wayne might jump at the chance to be again. a boy . But associates of the 39-year-old star say he is currently living a quiet life in Salcombe, Devon, while working, before returning to his home in Cheshire as soon as he can.
“Wayne and Coleen are very solid,” said a friend. “He is very proud of her and is at home keeping things in order for when she returns.” That’s what he’s 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.
The couple has endured very public ups and downs and their loyalties have been tested, but they have weathered the storm.
‘There are no temptations, he just keeps working, being a father and, of course, watching I’m a Celebrity on the Go. It’s probably not what people imagine, but this is a grown-up Wayne.
He was said to have been “angry” at vile sexual chants about his wife by Watford fans at Plymouth’s Home Park stadium last Friday.
Football club insiders say everyone was “horrified”, especially as Wayne has been involved in local outreach projects to support vulnerable women.
A spokesperson for the club told me they are working closely with charities Trevi, which provides safe spaces for women recovering from abuse and violence, and MAN: 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 a source close to the star.
“He always struggled with fame and it manifested itself in many different ways, but now he’s happy and can’t wait for Coleen to come home as queen of the jungle.”