Wayne Rooney’s Alcohol Battle Highlighted as Coleen Rooney’s Loyalty Is Explained in Daily Mail Report

A Daily Mail feature based on interviews and sources portrays Coleen Rooney's long-standing support for Wayne Rooney as he battled alcohol for two decades, a dynamic the piece says helps explain his recurring scandals and the couple's ability to stay together despite a high-profile life. The article frames her loyalty as a defining factor in his public life, including upcoming media projects that would show their family life to fans on a Disney+ documentary.

The piece recounts an early hours scene in 2010 at a central London hotel bar, when two heavily made-up Russian women sat beside Wayne after he had been named Football Writers' Player of the Year at an awards ceremony. The article notes the presence of Wayne's long-time agent Paul Stretford and questions whether Coleen—then on a family holiday in Majorca—would have been told. It says that for two decades, those who know the Rooneys say Coleen has stood by Wayne, in part because she believes alcohol fuels many of his controversies and that women sometimes seek to exploit his drunkenness.

In Wayne Rooney's own account, reported by the article, he told close friend Rio Ferdinand on Ferdinand's podcast that he had struggled with alcohol to a degree that could have ended his career. The piece paraphrases his description of drinking for two days straight around training and on weekends, and credits Coleen with keeping him on a steady path. It notes his four children—Kai, 15; Klay, 12; Kit, nine; and Cass, seven—to illustrate what is at stake for the couple when alcohol or infidelity threaten to derail their family life.

The piece also recounts past public episodes that have shaped the Rooneys' story, including Wayne's 2010 sexual encounters with escorts Helen Wood and Jenny Thompson at a Manchester hotel, and the 2010 CCTV-linked visit to a backstreet Liverpool brothel that brought renewed scrutiny after he was fresh from a teenage spell. It also cites the 2017 drink-driving charge after he took an estate agent's car back to her home, an incident that prompted Coleen to relocate temporarily to her parents' house but ultimately did not end the marriage. The article emphasizes that Coleen's decisions in those years were guided less by jealousy than by concerns about his well-being and the idea that alcohol was driving much of the risk.

A source close to the couple says many have wondered why Coleen has forgiven Wayne repeatedly, but that she has long understood his demons and believes her role is to help him avoid repeating the patterns. The source adds that she remains fiercely protective of him and of their four children, who would otherwise face an absent father if their marriage collapsed. The piece also notes a moment in 2021 when photographs surfaced of Wayne passed out in a chair while two women posed in underwear in a hotel room, an intrusion that Coleen is described as finding deeply offensive because of how it depicted him while he was vulnerable.

The Daily Mail report frames these episodes as part of a broader narrative about how alcohol can complicate the lives of high-profile athletes, and it suggests that those who target wealthy men often exploit their vulnerability when they are intoxicated. A friend of the Rooneys is quoted as expressing hope that the public revelation of these dynamics might curb such predation in the future, while the article hints that the couple are preparing to share more of their life with viewers on screen through their Disney+ documentary project.