Wayne Rooney's cheating scandal, shock career change plan and football prodigy son

Wales Online

17-05-2025

Wayne Rooney's cheating scandal, shock career change plan and football prodigy son
The former Manchester United and England star is returning to Wembley for this year's FA Cup final
Rooney with his wife Coleen and son Kai, who is set to follow in his footsteps as a footballer for Manchester United
Wayne Rooney will return to the familiar surroundings of Wembley Stadium this afternoon as part of the BBC's coverage of the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Crystal Palace.
The former Manchester United striker is no stranger to the home of English football, having won seven trophies - including one FA Cup - at the stadium over the course of his glittering career, as well as playing there regularly for England, for whom he scored 53 goals in 20 appearances before retiring in 2018.
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In addition to the two League Cups and four Community Shields he also won at Wembley, Rooney has five Premier League titles to his name as well as being a former Champions League and Europa League winner. Widely regarded as one of the best British players of all time, he also ended his career as the Premier League's third-highest goal scorer of all time, having netted on 208 occasions.
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Since retiring, Rooney has had a rocky start to life in management, losing four jobs in the space of two years with stints with Derby County, DC United and Birmingham City followed by a spell with Plymouth Argyle, who sacked him after just seven months in charge in December last year.
While he has not ruled out a return to management in the near future, Rooney has also lent himself to punditry since hanging up his boots and will line up alongside Alan Shearer, Micah Richards and Glenn Murray later today as Gary Lineker fronts the BBC's coverage of the final.
The 39-year-old remains a respected figure among football fans for everything he achieved on the pitch, but he has also seen events in his personal life hit the headlines in recent years, and not always for the right reasons. Here's what you need to know.
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Cheating allegations
Rooney has been married to his childhood sweetheart Coleen since 2008, having met while at secondary school and started dating when they were both 16.
She was by his side as he soared to super stardom as a teenager, and they went on to have four sons - Kai, Klay, Kit and Cass - together.
However, their relationship has been far from smooth sailing, with the couple rocked by several scandals and allegations over the footballer's alleged infidelity over the years.
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Before they were married, Rooney was reported to have paid for sex with a prostitute at a brothel on more than one occasion, with this behaviour alleged to have continued even after their wedding day.
The Premier League icon reportedly slept with another prostitute while Coleen was pregnant with Kai, leading her to move out of the family home with the baby and move into her parents' house
While Coleen forgave him, however, more allegations of cheating emerged later in his career, following his 2017 arrest for drink driving.
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Rooney had been caught behind the wheel of a car belonging to office worker Laura Simpson, who he had met at a bar earlier that night and - as she later alleged - had a "kiss and cuddle with".
The mum-of-one also claimed they would have "ended up sh****** no doubt," with a heartbroken Coleen temporarily moving out of the house again.
Recalling the difficult period, Coleen later said: "I've had that feeling in my stomach a few times and I would never wish anyone to feel that. You do think, do I actually know this person, when things like that happen.
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"You know, 'You're not the person I married and the person I want you to be.' He just said, 'I'm sorry I'm sorry'. And I said well, 'You can't be sorry because you know it's wrong what you've done' and I just kept saying you're stupid, you are just so stupid.
"I was just heartbroken," she added. "I just said I can't stay in the house and I went and stayed in my mum's with the children."
Meanwhile, Rooney said: 'Of course she wasn't happy. But if I'm being honest, I can't even remember speaking to the girl in the bar, never met [her] before in my life.
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'So there was never any talk of anything happening or anything was going to happen. You know, I'm driving another girl's car and she's in the passenger seat, it doesn't look great. I know what it was. But I also know what it looked like.'
However, Coleen decided to stick by her husband and admitted during her appearance on last year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! that the couple are "happy now" having stuck together.
'Since the first mistake he's made, that's been in the public, people have not forgiven," she said. "When things have happened the public have wanted it to just go oh, split, you know, that's it, split them up. But the fact is, there's always been love still there.'
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'It has been difficult, but we're happy now, after all those years… we're a team.'
Shock career change plan
Coleen also infamously hit headlines in 2019 when she accused Rebekah Vardy - the wife of Leicester striker Jamie - of leaking stories about her to the press in what later became known as the 'Wagatha Christie' dispute.
The highly publicised dispute emerged when Coleen claimed on social media that Vardy had been secretly operating an Instagram account that had leaked posts from her private account directly to The Sun newspaper.
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To confirm her suspicions, she said she had deliberately posted fabricated stories on her account and restricted them so only Vardy's account could view them, before watching to see if they later emerged in the press.
In a statement on X, she wrote: 'For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing the Sun newspaper of my private posts and stories. There has been so much information given to them about me, my friends and my family – all without my permission or knowledge.
She added: "It's been tough keeping it to myself and not making any comment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked, however I had to. Now I know from certain which account/individual it's come from. I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It's … Rebekah Vardy's account.'
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The following year, however, Vardy sued Coleen for libel, with the case coming to trial in the English High Court in May 2022.
But the highly-documented trial saw the court dismiss Vardy's claim on the basis that it was "substantially true" that she had leaked Coleen's private information to the press.
However, the events of the trial almost saw footballing icon Rooney - who attended the court alongside his wife to support her - change careers completely as he was captivated by the drama of the courtroom.
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In the Disney+ documentary about the trial, Rooney admitted: "It was interesting because I do like crime documentaries, and in particular the different techniques the two barristers used," while Coleen added that her husband 'was then going to apply for law school and he had all these plans.'
Coleen's solicitor Paul Lunt agreed, adding: 'I'm not saying he's a modern day Columbo, but certainly if we'd given him a gown and a wig he was bang up for asking a few questions."
Meanwhile, his colleague Jamie Hurworth noted: "Once the day was finished, we would have a little debrief with Wayne and Coleen. I'd not dealt with Wayne that much before the trial but he was just fascinated by the whole thing. [He] started suggesting legal argument that we should start running.'
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Rooney later admitted on an episode of Stick to Football that he had applied to study law at Nottingham University following the trial, explaining: 'When Coleen had the court case with Rebekah Vardy, I was there with the barrister and the lawyers, and I was saying to the barrister, 'you need to ask this question'.
'I did apply — it was to Nottingham University — I applied to go in and try and study, but then I did go away. I want to do it to get one of those wigs on!'
Football prodigy son
Rooney's son Kai is set to follow in his foosteps having started tearing it up for Manchester United's youth teams.
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With his dad making more than 500 appearances for United and becoming their all-time record goalscorer, Kai has an awful long way to go before he eclipses his legacy, but the 15-year-old has impressed coaches since joining the Red Devils in 2020.
Of course, he has received a fair amount of guidance from his father, as he explained: "It's a lot about scoring goals because he was pretty good at scoring goals. So it's mainly tips about that. He is preparing me to get into professional football with the right mentality."
Revealing his favoured position on the pitch, Kai added: "I could play on the wing as well, but I'm mainly a striker that scores goals," he said.
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Meanwhile, Rooney senior told The Athletic more details about his son's early career, as he said: "He's enjoying it. That's the most important thing. He's doing everything he can to try to have a career in football and not just him, my other children as well. They love the game and my advice - to any children - is play to enjoy.
"There's that much pressure when you do get to the professional level and sometimes you forget why you're playing the game. You're playing because you love playing the game and you enjoy playing the game."
Coleen also revealed to the Mirror: 'We've never pressured them into even playing football. We've always just let them decide what they want to do. My eight-year-old was playing and doing really well but then decided he didn't want to, and that's OK.
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'I think they sometimes get pressure off other people, you know. People approach them now and then if we're out, they do say, 'Are you are as good as your dad?'. Kai says 'I'm a different type of player.'
"You've got to let them know that you don't have to follow and to be your own person.'