Coleen Rooney says ‘some of Wayne’s mistakes are harder to forgive than others’

In her tell-all documentary, Rooney said her husband is a ‘totally different person’ when he’s drinking

Ellie Harrison
Wednesday 18 October 2023 01:30 EDT
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Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story - trailer

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Coleen Rooney has spoken candidly about the ups and downs of her marriage to former footballer Wayne Rooney.

In her new Disney+ documentary, Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, the TV personality, 27, discusses Wayne’s 2017 charge for drink driving, and her decision to briefly move out of the family home afterwards.

The former England player, 37, was banned from driving for two years after pleading guilty to being almost three times over the limit in what he described as a “terrible mistake”. Another woman in her twenties was in the car with him at the time.

“You do think, ‘Do I know this person?’ when things like that happen,” Coleen says in the documentary. “You’re not the person I married and not the person I want you to be…

“He said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ and I said, ‘Well you can’t be sorry because it’s wrong what you’ve done,’ and I just kept saying, ‘You’re stupid, you’re so stupid.’”

Speaking about her decision to go and stay at her mother’s for a while, she says: “I was just heartbroken, I just said, ‘I cant stay in the house.’”

Coleen’s mother Colette McLoughlin also looks back on that time, saying: “You’re mad, you’re angry, you’re upset… I love [Wayne] but sometimes I don’t like him. I feel like shaking him.’”

Coleen says she phoned the woman whose car Wayne was driving, recalling: “Wayne wanted it all to go back to normal but it wasn’t as easy as that. I was still mad and didn’t know what the future was for us a couple. I said to him, ‘I can’t carry on with this.’

“Over the years, Wayne has got himself into situations where it’s caused bad press attention. Some mistakes are harder to forgive than others.

“I know Wayne as a person and I know his qualities, I know his downfalls. There are moments when I think I don’t know him, when he’s been drinking, and that’s when he’s a totally different person.”

Wayne and Coleen Rooney with their four children
Wayne and Coleen Rooney with their four children (Disney)

Wayne is also interviewed in the documentary. “You get married, you make your vows. I want to spend the rest of my life with Coleen,” he says. “To put myself in a position where I could almost throw that away was so silly and stupid of me, and it’s not what I want at all.”

Last year, in an Amazon Prime documentary called Rooney, Coleen said she has forgiven her husband for “cheating on her multiple times”.

In 2010, Wayne faced allegations that he cheated on Coleen with three sex workers while she was pregnant in 2002. Two of the women, who claimed they regularly slept with the Manchester United star, issued statements of apology to Coleen.

Wayne said at the time of the Rooney documentary that he has “always held my hands up to” his mistakes, adding: “It was tough for me to do it and for Coleen to do it. When tough moments have come up, we have sat down and spoke about them and figured out how we are going to get through it.”

The couple began dating at the age of 16 and were married in 2008 when Coleen was 21 and Wayne was 22. They have four children together: Kai, 13, Klay, 10, Kit, seven, and Cass, five.

Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, which sees Coleen give her account of the libel trial,is out now on Disney+.

If you or someone you know is suffering from alcohol addiction, you can confidentially call the national alcohol helpline Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 or visit the NHS website here for information about the programmes available to you.

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