Wayne Rooney doesn’t rule the Roos-t, Coleen does… she’s no doormat

“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.

“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.

GYM BUNNY

“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.”

During his playing career, Wayne — who is worth an estimated £122million — was never likely to win the multi-million endorsement deals netted by his more chiselled, six-packed peers — David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale et al.

It takes a strong woman to keep faith in a marriage and not jump ship at the first sign of difficulty.

Friend

Instead, the ex-Man United ace did his showboating on the pitch. He is England’s record scorer, with 53 goals, and there is no disputing his talent or extraordinary footballing brain.

So to question why good-looking, uber-fit gym bunny Coleen stays with “multi-millionaire Wayne Rooney” is patronising. Talent is attractive — and Wayne has it in spades.

For her part, every year without fail, Coleen gets approached to appear on Strictly Come Dancing and I’m A Celebrity.

She has a private Instagram account, but is endlessly asked to plug various brands on her public page, with its near-900,000 followers.

Evidently, she is not the only one in this marriage who piques public interest. Top talent agent Jonathan Shalit, who masterminded Charlotte Church’s career, believes Coleen is very much a “brand” in her own right.

He says: “Coleen is a deeply impressive woman. It’s clear she is with a challenging man, but it’s equally clear she puts family life — ensuring a proper, happy home for her children — over her own ­personal fame.

“Coleen is the backbone of that family, and has very strong values, and because of this I think a lot of women can relate to her. She is popular and has real commercial appeal. She could be the face of many different brands if she chose to.”

The couple have known one another since secondary school — they have been together longer than they were apart.

If only this prodigiously bright grey matter translated off the pitch.

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.

GROVELLING PUBLIC APOLOGY

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 newspapers 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.

DRUNKEN ANTICS

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.