Wayne Rooney opens up about being 'vulnerable' after retirement and plans for future
Despite being heavily in the public eye for the past few decades, Coleen and Wayne Rooney have always maintained a level of privacy.
But now they’re opening the doors of their Cheshire mansion and giving us a closer look at family life with the release of The Real Rooneys on Disney+.
Coleen tells LADbible that the ‘time’s now’ for the family to let us in, noting that over the years more and more people have expressed an interest in wanting to ‘see them a little bit more’.
Advert
So that includes taking us into the chaos of living with their four boys, Kai, 16, Klay, 13, Kit, 10, and Cass, eight, as well as watching the I’m A Celeb star and Wayne find new layers of self-belief in their ‘new roles and goals’.
When The Real Rooneys starts, the England legend had just been cut from managing Plymouth Argyle – following his sacking from Birmingham City nearly a year before.
And so at this point, Wayne says that in ‘terms of football’ it was probably ‘the most vulnerable’ he’s been.
“In terms of just being sacked for the second time – didn’t know whether I wanted to go back into management or go down different routes and at a crossroads in what I was going to do,” he explains to LADbible.
“So that was a tough moment.”
But Wayne was finding offers for TV and podcast work which he decided it was finally time to try out.
“That would give me more time to help with the kids, go watch the kids play football, take them to school, but also still have one foot within football as well,” he recalls thinking.
“So I just think that decision made my life a lot more balanced which then obviously makes everyone else's life a lot easier as well.”
Although, there’s another goal on his list – the show features a lot of joking about Wayne’s wish to be on The Masked Singer but he tells us: “I want to be a judge on The Voice.”
But The Real Rooneys also sees Coleen embracing her new found self-belief and exploring work with the likes of Primark and Applied Nutrition.
“Pre-kids, I’d had offers and took them, you know, unbelievable experiences that I got given and put myself in the public eye - even though I was brought into it, I then took charge of it,” she says.
“Then I took time out to have kids, and I had that awful time with the court case. After that I done the documentary to close the book on that period.”
The support Coleen got from the public during this time gave her the ‘little bit of confidence and urge’ to take up some of the offers that were coming her way – like becoming an I’m A Celeb icon.
“The kids are getting older as well, so I have I say I have time - I don't have the time - but I've made the time to do something for me,” she says.
“And it's good that we've both got our work life, we've got our family life and it's nice to have Wayne back at home and we've got a good routine going now.”
The Real Rooneys give us a real insight into the family’s private life, something that’s long been speculated and talked about but we’ve never really seen.
But more than anything, Coleen reckons it gives people a chance to see that while they might be heavily in the public eye, they do ‘normal things’ and are relatable to people.
“If we’re going to commit to something, both of us, in our lives, we do it properly,” she says.
“And we didn't want to hold back on anything and that was the emotions we were going through at the time. There was days when the cameras were there, Wayne didn't want to get out of bed - it's just life and I think that's what people want to see because they can relate to that.”
Episodes 1-8 of The Real Rooneys are now streaming on Disney Plus with episodes 9-10 dropping 1 October.
Jess Battison