Coleen Rooney: Keeping it real in Wayne's WorldBy Louette Harding
Last updated at 12:20 AM on 12th April 2009
She has the man, mansion and Wag's shopping habit, yet Coleen has managed to keep her girl-next-door appeal and turn it into a multimillion-pound brand. Here she shares her thoughts on Chanel bags, the Champions' League – and children.
Coleen Rooney became famous only six years ago, yet today, at just 23, she is a national institution.
Then, she was a hesitant schoolgirl in uniform and lumpy coat; now, she is the author of Coleen’s Real Style and arrives at our photo shoot in a coquettish fusion of designer and high street: True Religion jeans, Lanvin top, Prada boots and Topshop shaggy fake fur.
Then, she was the newish girlfriend of Everton’s Wayne Rooney, precocious recruit to the England football team’s doomed quest for silverware; now, she sports on her third finger a bantam-egg-sized diamond – an interlocking engagement and wedding ring – which Manchester United superstar Wayne gave her for their summer 2008 marriage.
Then, she was famous as Wayne’s Wag; these days, she is a living brand – ‘Coleen x’ – her signature and girlie kiss on books, perfume, jewellery and loaned to charity ventures.
‘I don’t watch the football when Wayne’s not playing; it’s not exciting to me’Meeting her at a Manchester boutique hotel, the speed and improbability of her trajectory is immediately apparent. As we talk, her manner remains sweet and attentive, but her foot projects at a gawky, self-conscious angle, like Princess Diana in the early days.
Yet put her in front of a camera and the girl barely needs direction: smile, look down, tilt the head – she runs through the poses during our photo shoot with the assurance of a professional. She has the same velvety skin – gently tanned after a holiday in Barbados – and dazzling whiteness of eye and tooth I have only previously seen in top models, which is almost incongruous given that her looks have never been supermodel perfect. Which is one of the reasons we love her. She is pretty-miss from next door but with unexpected lustre.
The one constant in all this madness has been the immutable Wayne, a monosyllabic Northern bloke distrustful of crafting an image, a rock upon which the urgent force of fashion has beaten in vain.
Last autumn, he turned out for England with an alarming shaven head, which says it all really. Coleen cringes. ‘Oh, don’t go there! One of his friends did that. He started going to get his hair done at a barber’s and then he stopped.
'The thing with Wayne – he likes to go to places where he knows people. If he goes to a new place, it takes him a bit to get his whereabouts.’ So who cuts it now? ‘My mum did it last. With me saying, “Just trim that bit there.”’ And she quickly changes the subject.
Coleen has always been wary of any topic that might be used as fodder in the endless teasing that goes on in footballers’ dressing rooms. This seems to me to be an essentially feminine misreading of male-bonding mechanisms.
‘Wayne’s not interested in fashion,’ she concedes. ‘He’s got a friend who works in a shop in Manchester, so he’ll go there when winter starts and the same in summer. That’s him done with shopping for months.’
He drives to training in dodgy M&S slippers, apparently. ‘Actually, I haven’t seen him go in slippers for a while,’ she insists. ‘He’s been wearing flip-flops instead.’
What strikes you when talking to Coleen about Wayne is how very normal their relationship is. Our interview and photo shoot coincides with a vital Champions League fixture for Manchester United in Milan.
‘Wayne went away yesterday. I won’t see him till tomorrow. I still get excited when he comes back,’ she adds, with a loved-up smile. Having driven in from their new-build mansion in a leafy Cheshire village, she will drive herself to her mum’s in Liverpool this evening to watch the match on television.
She says that before they married, she and Wayne religiously celebrated the anniversary of their first date (Austin Powers 2 at their local cinema). ‘And when things remind me of that day, I still get butterflies. Young love is special. We went on a few dates and then we seemed to be together all the time. A lot of people say it’s worrying if you’re with each other all the time, but not us.’
‘If I go shopping with Wayne, I’ll say, “Look at that handbag! Isn’t it lovely?” And he’ll say, “You don’t need any more handbags”’After she left school, aged 17, she languished for a while as a professional girlfriend. ‘We moved into a house in Formby and we were doing it up and I enjoyed it for a bit – however, I didn’t want to be doing that all my life. I was happy but a bit bored.’
A photo shoot with Vogue in 2005 boosted her image and she has since racked up the deals and contracts. ‘So this year there’s the paperback of the book,’ she says. (She pronounces ‘book’ something like booh-ker, her Scouse accent musical and idiosyncratic.)
‘That was fun, talking about things I’m interested in. And then I’m doing a second perfume, a summer fragrance. I love perfume, I’ve got loads of bottles. And my Argos jewellery. Every girl loves a bit of bling. I wanted to do it at a price that suits anyone. I’m over the moon with the watches.
'Someone said to me, “I like your watch.” I said, “It’s Argos.” I teamed it with a diamond bracelet and it looked so expensive. The lady who asked me couldn’t get over it.
‘Of course, the big thing this year was the show [the second series of her reality TV programme, Coleen’s Real Women on ITV2, which ends on Tuesday]. I enjoyed it so much more this time. I felt more confident, more relaxed. It’s on tonight,’ and then her voice drops. ‘Oh, no! I’ll have to
Sky-plus it because the match is on!’
It’s not as if Coleen is a real footie fan. ‘I don’t watch the football when Wayne’s not playing; it’s not exciting to me.’ Yet she bought an executive box at Old Trafford, attends all home games and endures Wayne’s obsessive-compulsive fixation.
‘Soon as we come in on a Saturday, Match of the Day is on. Then on MUTV [the Manchester United channel] the match gets repeated at midnight, so he watches that, too. It’s football constantly on the telly.’
He’s watching himself twice to learn from his mistakes? ‘Yeah.’ But she must be bored silly having seen it live? ‘I go to bed. I’m an early bird anyway. If friends come round he’ll Sky-plus it, but he’s itching to watch. It takes a lot for him to record it and watch the next day.’
Even when they see her family, there is endless football ‘banter’, because Coleen’s dad and two younger brothers are Liverpool fans. One brother won’t join her in her box for United’s home games against Liverpool. ‘He sits with the away fans.’
It seems only fair to have a good girlie chat about her own interests, as evidenced in Coleen’s Real Style. Does she have a dressing room at home?
‘Yeah.’ Is it organised by colour or category? ‘No. It’s not messy, it’s neat, but it’s not in order. I’ve also got clothes on rails in another room as well.’ She gives a guilty giggle.
‘I had a big clear-out six months ago but I always get to a point where I need another.’ How many pairs of jeans does she have? ‘I don’t know. Quite a few.’
Does she know how many handbags she has? ‘No. I don’t think I’d want to count.’ This is said in a small voice. Then she rallies. ‘I wouldn’t give away my really expensive handbags, I’m afraid. Shoes and handbags are my favourite things.
‘If I go shopping with Wayne, I’ll say, “Look at that handbag! Isn’t it lovely?” And he’ll say, “You don’t need any more handbags!”’ She is giggling.
‘He’s quite good. He knows that if I’ve got a bit of money to spend, from a young age I’ve liked to buy a handbag or pair of shoes.’
What’s the last thing he bought her? She picks up a black leather Chanel bag. ‘For Valentine’s Day. It’s my favourite.’ But he’s got such good taste! (I must sound incredulous.) She bursts out laughing. ‘Erm, I think he got a bit of help from the shop assistant. I throw a few hints and he goes to the shops where they know me and they direct him in the right ways.’
Is it true he said her bum looked big in her Juicy Couture tracksuits? ‘Well, he doesn’t like me wearing Juicy tracksuits so I think that was a way of getting me out of them. But I still wear them to the supermarket.’
She says she still makes fashion errors but wants to experiment. ‘I also keep clothes I’ve spent a lorra money on. If I have daughters of my own one day, they could have them.’
After our interview, rumours surface that Coleen is pregnant. She denied being broody when we met (understandably, given the scrutiny) but admitted, ‘I’ve always loved having children around. I was the one with the baby on my arm, looking after my little cousins and siblings.’ As for continuing to work, ‘There are so many working women in the public eye who manage, though I can’t say for sure what I’ll do until I have children.’
Since then, she has confirmed that she is expecting, with the baby due in October, saying, 'It’s the most brilliant news and, along with marrying Wayne, the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
'Wayne is over the moon and so excited and I just know he’ll be a great dad.
'It’s something we both wanted and we feel incredibly lucky and happy.'
Coleen’s parents started fostering when she was 13 and still do. Last year, they fostered a little boy for six months. ‘Wayne bought him a tiny Manchester United shirt with “Rooney” on the back.’
Coleen talks about her adopted sister Rosie – who has a degenerative disorder called Rett syndrome – with determined positivity. ‘When she came to us at the age of two, she could crawl, pick things up and eat. Now she can’t do any of that. She gets fed through a tube. She’s on oxygen. But she is happy.
'She was 11 this month. She loves balloons so we filled a room up with them.’ They also took her to Lourdes recently. Did Coleen have hope of a cure? She shakes her head, smile drooping. ‘My mum and dad go every year. When I was 16 I went with the [church] youth [group]. I thought it was going to be really pure. Didn’t expect the flashing Our Ladies!’ She is referring to the products for sale in the tacky shops around the grotto.
‘This time we went as a big group – my auntie and uncle, mum’s friends, playing bingo with all the old people – it was just about being yourself, doing things you don’t do any more but used to love.’
As we finish, she hands me a heart-shaped brooch, which she designed for the Variety Club. She is their first ambassador since Princess Diana.
As if to underline her status as national treasure, a new museum in Liverpool has asked her to donate a Balenciaga dress she wore to last year’s Aintree Ladies’ Day.
It is an odd life she leads, full of unimaginable rewards and curious pitfalls, and I take my hat off to her for negotiating it all so gracefully. I think of her that evening, dutifully watching the goalless match.
Wayne is on the bench, coming on for only the last six minutes.
Source:
DailyMail
I can't wait. 
