COLEEN Rooney is Wayne’s “rock and moral barometer” – he only strays when she’s away on holiday, a friend has claimed.
Time and time again the former England captain has fouled — on and off the pitch.
Time and time again his unwaveringly loyal, forgiving, decent wife, Coleen, hasn’t shown him the red card.
The mum of four has, once again, stood by her man following his latest indiscretion — passing out drunk at 5am in a hotel room, with two identikit blondes.
A friend told The Sun: “Coleen has had so much stick over the years for standing by Wayne — most of it from people who have never met either of them.
“People say she’s a doormat for letting him stray, for simply shrugging off his humiliating drunken antics.
“The reality is very different. It takes a strong woman to keep faith in a marriage and not jump ship at the first sign of difficulty. The only times Wayne cocks up are when she’s away.
“Coleen is his rock, his moral and social barometer.”
But the pal insists Coleen won’t divorce him because she refuses to break her marriage vows and “ruin their boys’ lives”.
They continued: “Of course, as a staunch Catholic, Coleen takes her marriage vows seriously. She committed to Wayne for better or for worse.
“Crucially, she will not ruin her boys’ lives by taking them away from their dad and getting involved in an acrimonious divorce battle. Family is everything to her.
“But Coleen is also fiercely independent. She has her own immensely loyal friendship group, and interests, and does her own thing.
“People accuse her of staying with Wayne for the money, which again is nonsense.
“Were they to divorce, in crude financial terms she’d be set for life.
“Arguably she could also make more money without Wayne than with him.
“There’s this sense that she’s some poor, down- trodden housewife. How many housewives do you know who can jet off first-class to Barbados, without their husband, and holiday at will?
“Coleen has a great life, and to suggest otherwise is patronising and mildly misogynistic.”
But Coleen quickly became the butt of jokes on Twitter, with one saying: “Coleen’s got a new perfume coming out — introducing Eau De Doormat!”
“She should bring out a doormat range!” added another court jester. For a while, the hashtag #doormat was trending.
“Coleen needs to leave Wayne — she’s an embarrassment,” frothed another so-called fan, while others pompously declared Coleen a “bad role model”.
All because she didn’t see fit to throw away a marriage of 13 years for the sake of some thoughtless high jinks (or, indeed, a little snooze) in a budget Manchester hotel.
Actually, they’re wrong. Coleen IS a great role model. She’s also an unlikely feminist.
The couple have known one another since secondary school — they have been together longer than they were apart.
Wayne’s indiscretions have been well documented. Famously — or rather, infamously — in 2004 it transpired he had been a regular at a local Liverpudlian brothel, where one of his chosen prostitutes was a 48-year-old grandma in a rubber catsuit known as the “Auld Slapper”.
Although devastated, Coleen forgave him. Writing in her autobiography, she explained she stayed with Wayne because he had strayed before their relationship became serious.
She wrote: “The truth is, and I’ve never said this before, at that time in our relationship I’d never even slept with Wayne. I was only 16 and we weren’t having that kind of relationship at that stage. We used to meet at the chippy or the cinema.”
Alas, more cheating followed. Two years after their glamorous 2008 wedding in Portofino, Italy — covered by OK! mag for a reported £2.5million — it emerged he had paid for sex with another call girl, Jenny Thompson.
Jenny, who advertised herself as “Juicy Jen”, went on to appear on the reality TV show Ex On The Beach — providing yet more horror for poor Coleen. Sordid claims of a threesome followed.
Then in 2017 — when Coleen was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, Cass — Wayne was caught drink-driving.
Police pulled him over as he drove the VW Beetle of a so-called party girl, Laura Simpson, who later claimed the pair had kissed.
Wayne subsequently issued a grovelling public apology to Coleen.
The couple’s fresh start in the States in 2018, after the striker’s lucrative signing to Major League Soccer side DC United, also got off to a bumpy start when news broke that Wayne had been arrested for public intoxication after a flight from Saudi Arabia.
Humiliatingly for all concerned, the star’s police-issued red jumpsuit mugshot quickly circulated online.
More partying followed, with more PR disasters. In August 2019 Wayne was pictured in a Vancouver hotel lobby, seemingly following a mystery brunette into a lift.
Coleen was in the UK staying with her parents while Wayne partied, stumbling in at 5.36am, a few steps behind the woman.
There was no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the striker, besides stupidity maybe.
Wayne’s latest 5.30am finish occurred last weekend, leaving the star — now manager of Derby County — raging that he’d been “set up”.
Whatever the truth — and it’s clear that where Wayne goes, trouble-making women love to follow — his extracurricular CV makes for unedifying reading.
During his latest boozy night out, Coleen was 100 miles away in north Wales, holidaying with her parents and kids. Shunning the more exotic climes of the Caribbean, she read the room correctly, sensing a luxury break wouldn’t sit well with a tired, Covid-hit nation.
Since she was first photographed and plastered across the news- papers aged 16, Coleen has not put a Louboutin-clad foot wrong.
In her husband’s playing days, she diligently supported him from the stands, come rain or shine. As a wife, she continues to practise forgiveness, loyalty and tolerance.
And as a mother of four boys, Kai, Klay, Kit and baby Cass, it’s clear she’s as devoted to them as they are to her. (In his defence, it’s clear Wayne is also an excellent and devoted dad.)
Doubtless it was Coleen who was instrumental in rounding up the troops last summer, taking part in the nationwide Clap For Carers at the height of the pandemic. Like millions, she and her boys were seen humbly banging pots and pans in support of NHS frontline staff.
Coleen has had first-hand experience of the dedication of doctors and nurses. Her beloved little sister, Rosie, tragically died aged 14 in 2016 following a battle with Rett syndrome, a rare brain disorder.
Undoubtedly such grief must put Wayne’s silly, drunken antics into perspective. Why throw away a marriage over photos of a young man — Wayne’s still five years shy of 40 — slumped out on a chair in a £60-a-night Staycity hotel room?
Being a feminist nowadays is about so much more than burning bras. Coleen might not be leading any marches, but her quiet, steely sensibility ensures it’s she who really wears the trousers.
