Coleen Rooney lifted the lid on her marriage to husband Wayne in a candid conversation with her I’m A Celebrity campmates.
During Thursday night’s highlights show, Coleen spoke to her fellow contestants about Wayne’s relationship with fame.
“All he wanted to do was play football,” she began. “And he struggled with the fame side of it. He hated that.
“If he could have just played football and had none of the fame, I think he would have been happier within life.”
Coleen said Wayne agreed that the “intrusive” side of celebrity is a particular issue, as well as the fact he continues to face a “lot” of criticism due to his past “mistakes along the way”.
“Since the first mistake he made that’s been in the public, people have not forgiven him,” Coleen claimed. “When things have happened, the public has wanted [me] to go, ‘that’s it, split up’, but the fact is, there’s always been love still there.”
She insisted: “It’s been difficult, but we’re happy now, still, after all that. We’re a team.”
Coleen and Wayne began dating when they were teenagers, and got engaged at the age of 17, before eventually marrying in 2008.
In 2017, Wayne made headlines when he was pulled over for driving under the influence while at the wheel of a car owned by a woman he’d met earlier that night.
A year later he was sentenced to 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty to drink-driving.
Though Coleen initially remained silent on rumours the pair’s marriage was in trouble, she later spoke out on Facebook, writing: “A few people have been feeling sorry for me, please don’t… I don’t feel sorry for myself.
“Also a few people are probably thinking [I am] stupid for staying in my marriage. I am not stupid, I know my own mind and it’s something I want to try and work on.”
I’m A Celebrity continues on Friday night at 9pm on ITV1.
