Coleen Rooney opened up about her life growing up in the public eye due to her relationship with Wayne Rooney.
The duo were childhood sweethearts before tying the knot at 22 and Coleen has admitted her man's dramatic rise to fame as a teenage was tough to take. The mum-of-four, 38, was opening up to I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here campmate Oti Mabuse. She revealed the pair struggled at times and insisted the former Manchester United legend would have happily gave up the fame and just played football.
Speaking in camp, Coleen revealed: "All he wanted to do was play football, he struggled with the fame side of it, he hated that. If he could’ve just played football and had none of the fame I think he would’ve been happier within life."
She went on to add: "He’s made mistakes along the way, but from 16, obviously you’re going to, that’s life."
It was a sentiment Oti agreed with. She replied: "You have to learn to be resilient at a young age, but he didn’t ask for that and it’s quite unfair on him as well that he had to be so strong so young."
Coleen went on to reveal she married Wayne when they were just 22. She confessed they got engaged when they were just 17 or 18 years old and said they always felt older due to being in the limelight. "We felt older, because we had to grow up quick, because we were living in the public eye," she added.
She also explained how early the difficult times began, revealing: "A paparazzi took a photograph of me going to school and that was in national papers, it’s been difficult times... Since the first mistake he’s made, that’s been in the public, people have not forgiven. When things have happened the public have wanted it to just go oh, split, you know, that's it, split them up. But the fact is, there's always been love still there." She goes on to say: "It has been difficult, but we're happy now, after all those years… we're a team."
Earlier in the series, Coleen shared how Wayne got a tattoo of her name not long into their relationship. Speaking to her campmates, Coleen opened up on the early days of their dating as Wayne was breaking onto the football scene with Everton. She said: "I was still at school when he was playing for Everton. I used to walk out and all the girls were going, ‘Whose is that car there?’ And he was in a Bentley and something else and there’s Wayne in the passenger seat with his arm out and one of the players like Thomas Gravesen.
"I just used to get embarrassed,” she said before clarifying it wasn’t his car. “He just used to get a lift home!” Coleen also told the story of when she was going to her friend’s 18th birthday party, she got a call from Wayne’s cousin beforehand, asking if she spelt her name with 1 L or 2."
When she asked why, he said: “I’m just with our Wayne in town, he’s getting a tattoo.” Coleen added: "I had not long been going with him. I go to this party later on, and he’s going to everybody like this [mocks showing her arm]. He’d got my name tattooed on him! At 17!”
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