COLEEN ROONEY has broken her silence on how her husband Wayne Rooney voted for her to take part in some of the grim Bushtucker trials while she was in the jungle.
The mum-of-four, 38, placed as runner-up in the 2024 season of I’m A Celebrity, with the WAG narrowly missing out on the crown to king of the jungle Danny Jones.
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I’m A Celeb’s Coleen Rooney reveals she was a super-sleuth long before her escapades Wagath Christie Credit: Rex
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Fans loved seeing Coleen willingly get her hands dirty during the Bushtucker trial Credit: Rex
And now Coleen has opened up about her time in the jungle, as well as what she really thought when she found out her husband had begged his 62 million social media followers to vote for her to do some of the gruesome trials.
Speaking about her husband urging his followers and fans to vote for his wife to cover herself with the creatures, Coleen said she was “glad” he did.
“I’m glad it did because I was desperate to rehearse. I thought, ‘What’s the point of coming here if I’m not going to do any rehearsing?'” she said.
Also since coming out of the jungle, Coleen has revealed that she was a super-sleuth long before her escapades with Wagatha Christie – she was even breaking apart what she got for Christmas as a child.
READ MORE ABOUT COLEEN ROONEY
And she put that to good use before the holidays by working on what will be her prezzies.
Coleen’s detective skills came to light in 2019 after a social media post accused her rival and Sun jungle columnist Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories to the press.
This year’s I’m A Celeb runner-up said with a laugh: “I usually throw myself into things. I usually smell things before they actually happen. Even down to Christmas presents when I was younger — I knew what I was getting before Christmas.”
Wag Coleen — married to football manager Wayne Rooney — showed off her investigative talents on the ITV reality show when she decided on Maura Higgins and Rev Richard Coles’ Jungle Junkyard fabrications.
She realized that the couple, who were secretly living in luxury, were too content to tell the truth about how they lived in the slums.
Down-to-earth Coleen won fans over during her stint on I’m a Celeb with stories about her football star husband and how he would write her romantic poetry.
The first week was difficult. The headache came on the third day – apparently, withdrawal from caffeine, sugar and alcohol
Coleen
But in the first few days of her adventure Down Under, she was able to pick herself up – after suffering withdrawals from booze and coffee.
Coleen — who uploaded the fake stories to her private Instagram and accused fellow Wag Rebekah Vardy of leaking them, leading to their High Court defamation trial — was coolly hesitating with the camp’s caffeine.
‘Dunny doesn’t bother me’
Coleen Rooney reveals she secretly struggled with ‘alcohol withdrawal’ on I’m A Celeb
And she revealed that she paid a price for not quitting sooner.
Coleen said yesterday: “The first week was tough. You’re obviously weaning yourself off caffeine. After a few days, I was thinking, ‘What did I sign up for? What am I doing here?’.
“The headache started on the third day. Obviously, withdrawal from caffeine, sugar and alcohol. And then hunger — we didn’t get stars in the first week.
“I didn’t prepare before I went in there. I didn’t stop. A lot of people said they cut this and that. I never. I just carried on as normal.”
That wasn’t all she struggled with in the early stages of the competition.
In fact, Coleen says she considered giving up the first week as she sobbed over her children at camp one morning.
In scenes not shown by ITV, she cried looking at her luxury item – a pillow with a picture of her boys and Wayne on it.
But her iron will worked and helped her battle for Sunday’s final, when she lost to McFly’s Danny Jones by just over ten per cent of the 10 million votes.
Coleen explained: “That first week, I woke up one morning and apparently the pillow I’d been sleeping on had been given away.
“I looked over and saw Wayne and the kids and I cried a little bit and thought, ‘I don’t know if I can go all the way’. And that was just the first week. But I soon snapped out of it and washed the dishes and collected the wood and did whatever I had to do and it was fine. I came across it.”
She added: “I’m quite strong-minded. Even though I’m quiet, I struggle with things. I just think, ‘Come on, Coleen, you said you were going to do it, so just do it’.
“I snap out of things really quickly.”
Coleen was in tears again when her two youngest boys – eight-year-old Kit and Cass, six – surprised her at an Australian camp last week with her mum Colette McLoughlin, 62.
But Plymouth Argyle boss Wayne has been cheering her on from home amid his busy fixture list, while her eldest boys – Kai, 15, and Klay, 11 – also stayed in Cheshire.
She called Manchester United and England great Wazza (39) in the car immediately after leaving the jungle.
Coleen said: “As soon as I got out I called home. They all had a gathering at the house and watched it together. Wayne just said how proud he was. In the letter (from home) that I received, he said that he had never missed me so much — and I can understand that because we haven’t talked.
“We’ve been apart for weeks and weeks, but we talk several times a day, we FaceTime. It was hard not having that communication.
“I don’t keep up with the kids’ school and soccer news. . . . I’m so involved in all that at home. That was hard.”
Caring mum Coleen burst into tears as she hugged Kit and Cass at camp last Friday, after being separated from them for almost four weeks.
Sunday’s final saw her reunited with the boys, plus Colette and her dad Tony.
She said: “Obviously my mum, dad and two younger kids were there, then Wayne and my older two at home. It was more difficult for them to leave school. They said they weren’t going to school tomorrow because their mom was at the finals. I don’t know what the school will say about that, but, you know, they didn’t even make it to Australia so maybe they deserve a day off.”
ITV bosses broke the bank to make Coleen the most expensive signing in the show’s history, with a deal reportedly worth more than £1.5m.
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Wag Coleen showed off her investigative talent on the ITV reality show when she unraveled Maura Higgins and Rev Richard Coles’ Jungle Junkyard fabrications, pictured during the trialCredit: Rex
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Coleen was unaware that her childhood sweetheart Wayne was behind the surge in votes that forced her to her first trial in the jungleCredit: Getty Images
And they got theirs.
Viewers loved hearing her tales of encounters with the rich and famous, such as a previous run-in with “dirty s**t” President-elect Donald Trump in the White House.
Fans also loved seeing how Coleen, who lives in a £20 million mansion, was willing to get her hands dirty during Bushtucker’s trial.
And between mixed pig testicle cocktails and sinking glasses of liquid cockroaches, she did chores such as cleaning dunny with ex-Hunter Maura Higgins, 34.
I’m not a princess. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. Maybe I wouldn’t camp as much. . . but I used to clean huts in Pontins when I was younger
Coleen
But none of that bothered Coleen (except, perhaps, a fish bowl containing mixed giant mealworms, mixed fermented herring, crocodile anus and vomited fruit, which made her vomit).
She said, “I’m not a princess. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. Maybe I wouldn’t camp as much. . . but I used to clean huts in Pontins when I was younger.
“I have four boys and we’ve been in situations where we’ve gotten dirty before. We go to places like mud tracks and we go to ponds – none of that bothers me. If I had my own there, I could stay there for weeks and weeks.
»I don’t mind going to Dunny. I already went behind the tree. I have luxuries in my life and I feel that this is what surprised my friends from the camp — that life outside did not bother me. But it’s nice to be back in luxury.”
“It’s nice to have nicer things in life, but I don’t depend on it.”
Before flying to Oz, Coleen wrote instructions for friends and family watching over her sons on a chalkboard as if it were sidewalk tactics.
Her orderly schedule at home served her well to handle camp chores.
‘It’s so boring in the camp’
She said: “My day-to-day life is to pick people up and get on with it. If I don’t do it myself, it might not be over. And it was hard to back down. There were times when people were taking longer to do their household chores and I was thinking, ‘I really want to do this.’
“But we were penalized for that and we couldn’t do it. Also, I like to do it to keep myself busy because it’s so boring at camp. There’s not much in between when people go to trials and you’re just there and, when you’ve done your job, it’s done. I’m not a napper, but now I am.”
Coleen said she was also “not a crybaby” but that it was “really surprising” to see mum Colette at camp.
It was one of the few times producers were able to quickly win over Wag, who was also oblivious to the fact that her childhood sweetheart Wayne was behind the upsurge that forced her into her first jungle trial.
She thought it was because of her story about the rat biting her way through the car, but it never even aired on I’m a Celebrity.
Instead, her husband begged his 62 million social media followers to vote for her, leaving her covered in rats, cockroaches and maggots.
Coleen said: “I had a rat in my car at home and it did some damage. He chewed the wires. That’s why I thought they voted me into that trial, because they were rats in the van. But apparently not.”
She added of Wayne’s try: “I’m glad it did because I was desperate to referee.
“I thought, ‘What’s the point of coming here if I’m not doing any tests?'”
Coleen also revealed the strict exercise routine she followed in the jungle.
In one episode, she was seen crouching in the shower area.
He says he does 126 squats and pulses every day and adds: “Every morning, when I’m in the shower, I do squats. I practice several times in the gym and reformed pilates. But in the jungle, it was my squats.
“Those stairs . . . when you go to trials, you walk through that jungle, up and down. And that’s a long way. You are tired and have fewer calories.
“It’s hot. It’s humid. So yeah, I loved continuing the squat routine.”
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Mum Coleen says she thought about giving up in the first week as she sobbed over her children at camp one morningCredit: Australia Media
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Plymouth Argyle boss Wayne cheered her on from home amid his busy fixture list Credit: Rex
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Coleen’s detective skills came to light in 2019 after a social media post accused her rival and Sun jungle columnist Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories to the PressCredit: Getty
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Rebekah leaves court during the Battle of Wagatha Credit: Getty
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