My coronary heart was racing as I rummaged via my gold clutch bag. My cellphone had disappeared as I used to be sitting in a London lodge bar. Please let it’s in my bag, I prayed.
Earlier than I might go right into a full-on meltdown, the person sitting reverse me started to look on the ground, telling me to not fear and that it will flip up.
That man was Wayne Rooney, then Manchester United and England’s star striker. We have been having fun with a late drink on the Royal Lancaster Lodge after he’d been named Participant of the 12 months by the celebrated Soccer Writers’ Affiliation, again within the spring of 2010.
Having flown in for the evening from Majorca the place he was holidaying with spouse Coleen and their child Kai (who stayed within the sunshine whereas Wayne flew again for the do), he celebrated with a nightcap and a gossip with me after a colleague had organized for us to fulfill.
Clearly star-struck by Wayne, then simply 24, I had momentarily taken my eyes off of my beloved Blackberry and it had been swiped from below my nostril.
I known as the waiters for assist and requested Wayne’s supervisor, the terrifying Paul Stretford, who was sitting beside him, if he had seen it. Nothing.
Then a miracle occurred: Wayne noticed two ladies hovering round our desk and summoned them over. He insisted one among them open her purse, which she did and, seconds later, he hauled my cellphone out and handed it again to me.
Elated, I hugged Wayne. He was livid on my behalf and insisted the ladies have been thrown out of the posh lodge. As we left, I thanked him profusely and vowed by no means to put in writing a foul phrase about him. Given a few of his behaviour over the following years, it’s a promise I’ve needed to break.
However since that night, I’ve referred to Wayne, now the supervisor of Championship staff Plymouth Argyle, as my knight in shining armour, and each time any of his critics dare to lambast him, I bounce to his defence.
The Mail’s Katie Hind with chivalrous Wayne Rooney who got here to her rescue when her cellphone was stolen
And now, due to Coleen signing as much as the I’m A Celeb jungle, I’m not alone in seeing him as a completely first rate man.
His drunken antics have earned him a bad-boy picture that he’s been unable to shrug off, however now it seems Coleen’s star flip within the present helps to rehabilitate her troubled husband, too.
For these not au fait with Wayne’s misdemeanours, they started 20 years in the past when he was only a teen enjoying for Everton and was caught paying prostitutes at a Liverpool brothel.
Subsequent, in 2009, it was revealed he had loved a threesome with escorts Jenny Thompson and Helen Wooden on the five-star Lowry Lodge in Manchester whereas Coleen was pregnant with Kai (they now have 4 boys: Kai, 14, Klay, 11, Package, eight and Cass, six).
Wayne’s most up-to-date wrongdoing was in the summertime of 2017, when he was arrested for driving Cheshire property agent Laura Simpson’s automotive whereas over the drink-driving restrict. Coleen was pregnant with Cass on the time.
However all of that was lengthy forgotten final weekend, when proud Wayne, who has been watching Coleen on the ITV sequence each evening because it started on November 17, posted on social media praising his spouse and inspiring his followers to vote for her to do a Bushtucker trial.
He wrote on Instagram: ‘Me and the boys would like to see her doing a trial and we all know she’d wish to put herself to the take a look at… let’s get voting.’
Wayne’s calls have been answered: throughout Saturday’s episode, Coleen, 38, obtained the very best variety of votes to face the trial alongside the BBC Radio 1 presenter, Dean McCullough, 32. Shocked by his affect over the general public vote, Wayne joked on X: ‘Suppose I may very well be in hassle right here. Good luck!
He additionally appeared on the jungle’s spin-off present, I’m A Celeb…Unpacked, telling host Joel Dommett: ‘I’d like to see Coleen do a trial, I believe she’d be nice, actually good at them as properly.
Coleen along with her boys – Package, Kai, Wayne, Klay and Cass
‘I believe she’s displaying her type and caring persona and her character, that’s coming throughout robust. It’s nice to see her in there and settling in over the previous few days.’
Wayne stated he was lacking his spouse of 16 years ‘a lot’, saying the previous two weeks have been the longest they haven’t spoken since assembly as 12-year-olds on a council property in Croxteth, Liverpool.
He stated: ‘It’s been the longest I’ve been with out chatting with her since we have been children. For the kids, it’s tough clearly… not having the ability to converse to their mum.
‘Coleen’s mother and father are serving to out massively as a result of, I’m over in Plymouth residing there on the minute with my work. There’s a great staff taking care of the youngsters and ensuring all the pieces is completed with the kids. We’re lacking her, however we’re having fun with watching her as properly.’
Coleen’s Bushtucker trial was actually a ugly ordeal. She was locked behind a van with hordes of cockroaches, rats, big mealworms and crickets. However she was unflappable, efficiently profitable 9 stars for camp alongside Dean.
It was considerably predictable that as quickly because it emerged Coleen was jetting out to Australia – 10,000 miles away from the household’s £20 million super-mansion in Cheshire – there was lurid chatter on social media that Wayne would possibly take the chance to be a lad once more. However associates of the 39-year-old star say that these days he lives a quiet life in Salcombe, Devon, whereas at work, earlier than driving again residence to Cheshire as quickly as he can.
‘Wayne and Coleen are so strong,’ stated one good friend. ‘He’s so happy with her and is at residence conserving issues collectively for when she will get again. That’s what he’s specializing in.
Enduring the I am A Celeb Bushtucker Trial wherein Coleen was locked behind a van with hordes of cockroaches, rats, big mealworms and crickets
The couple have endured very public ups and downs, and loyalties have been examined, however they’ve weathered the storm
‘There are not any temptations, he’s simply cracking on with work, being a dad and, after all, watching I’m A Celeb with a takeaway. It isn’t what persons are most likely imagining, however that is grown-up Wayne.’
He was stated to be ‘cross’ at vile sexual chants about his spouse by Watford followers at Plymouth’s Dwelling Park Stadium final Friday.
Insiders on the soccer membership say that they have been all ‘horrified’, particularly as Wayne has been concerned in native out-reach initiatives to help weak ladies.
A spokesman for the membership informed me they’re working carefully with the charities Trevi, which offers secure areas for girls recovering from abuse and violence, and M.A.N: Tradition, which offers house for males and boys to have sincere conversations about masculinity and male violence towards ladies.
‘Wayne has discovered himself, as he approaches 40 subsequent 12 months,’ says one supply near the star.
‘He all the time struggled with fame and it manifested in many various methods, however he’s content material now and may’t look forward to Coleen to come back residence as queen of the jungle!’