Chic in a white suit, with her hair tucked in an elegant up-do, there’s no doubt this moment was the social pinnacle of Coleen Rooney’s life – and a marker of how very far the Scouse WAG has come.
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For this week, Coleen met King Charles for the first time at Windsor Castle at an event to support carers.
The beam on her face told it all: at last, she had finally made it. All past memories of keeping her husband, Wayne, in check were surely long forgotten.
The pleasure for Coleen must have been all the greater because her Royal invitation was thanks to her passionate support of those who care for family members.
Her dedication to this cause, of course, can be traced back to the death of her little sister Rosie in 2013, aged just 14. She had a rare genetic condition called Rett Syndrome, which causes severe physical and mental disabilities.
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As Coleen curtseyed for the King, her coming of age looked complete. After all, she turns 40 in April – and that landmark seems to be coming just at the right moment for Coleen.
Because not only is she experiencing something of a professional and public renaissance, her husband, Wayne is too.
Indeed, Coleen has enjoyed the recent pleasure of public backing after her triumphant Wag-atha Christie trial against her nemesis Rebekah Vardy, and her tell-all Disney+ documentary about the case was also sympathetically received.
Coleen Rooney meets King Charles for the first time at Windsor Castle at an event to support carers on February 11
Add to this her successful stint on ITV’s I’m A Celeb in 2024 where she came runner-up, and you can see why many believe that Coleen’s imminent new ten-part series – a fly-on-the-wall documentary inside her family’s £10million Cheshire mansion which is also to be screened on Disney+ – is going to reboot her career onto a new, highly lucrative, plane.
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Like his wife, former professional footballer Wayne has also experienced something of an astonishing reinvention: newly media trained and more confident, he has become the BBC’s latest golden boy of sports broadcasting, after a shaky start as a pundit, when could not hide his nerves.
Meanwhile, the couple’s eldest son, Kai, 16, looks highly likely to sign a deal at his dad’s former team Manchester United.
Undoubtedly, then, the Rooneys are having a moment – and it comes right at a time when the other pre-eminent couple of British celebrity and football are enduring rather choppy waters.
Because while Victoria and David Beckham deal with their ongoing fallout with their oldest son Brooklyn, it appears now is the time for Wayne, Coleen and their brood to capitalise. So could they take the Beckhams’ crown as the country’s First Family of Football?
I’m told that King Charles was as charmed by Coleen as he was by both David and Victoria. And that’s saying something, as a source tells me he ‘rather adores’ the Beckhams.
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David has been a guest at Charles’s famous garden at Highgrove where he asked him to be a patron of his King’s Foundation, and both he and Victoria were invited to their first State banquet at Buckingham Palace in December 2024, where they joined the Royals in welcoming the Emir of Qatar. Now the King’s affection appears to have extended to Coleen.
A source tells me: ‘Coleen was delightful with the King. It was lovely.
‘He is always fascinated by other people’s lives, and he enjoyed hearing of her experiences.
‘He found her to be thoroughly passionate about her cause, which always impresses him.’
Like his wife Coleen, former professional footballer Wayne has also experienced something of an astonishing reinvention
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Wayne, too, is impressing. Saturday nights see him as a pundit on Match of the Day, and his taciturn nature has slowly worn off and fans are warming to him. Bosses at the Beeb are said to see him as key to their future plans for football broadcasting. His candid BBC podcast, The Wayne Rooney Show, has also grown in popularity. In it, he has endeared listeners by revealing the extent of his struggles with alcohol, as well as providing sweet insight into his life at home with Coleen and his four sons.
BBC bosses are also ‘impressed yet surprised’ at this.
‘He’s really relatable,’ says an insider at the Corporation. ‘The feedback has been great.’
Indeed, so pleased is the BBC with Wayne’s progress – which is in part down to targeted media training, as well as his own hard graft – they are said to be looking at further projects for him.
‘After a shaky start at broadcasting, he has become so much more eloquent thanks to working really hard at it,’ my source says.
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It’s all a world away from the days when Wayne, who made his Premier League debut for Everton when he was just 16, faced taunts about his tawdry off-pitch behaviour.
Indeed, his rap sheet is long. Claims he slept with 48-year-old grandmother Patricia Tierney, nicknamed the Auld Slapper, who wore a rubber catsuit, when he was 18 – something she denied – led to him admitting to sleeping with unnamed prostitutes.
Then in July 2009 – months before Coleen gave birth to Kai – the couple experienced the humiliation of £1,200-a-night call girl Jenny Thompson claiming Wayne had cheated again.
In September 2017 police caught him driving drunk in Cheshire at the wheel of 29-year-old Laura Simpson’s VW, while Coleen was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, Cass.
As a result of the incident, Rooney was banned from driving and had to carry out community service.
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The Rooney family. Left to right, Klay, 12, Kai, 16, Kit, 10, Coleen, Wayne and Cass, 7
One can imagine that Coleen is hoping her eldest son’s launch into the world of football will bring none of the lows his father experienced.
Kai Rooney, who finishes school this summer, has now been offered a formal one-year scholarship by Manchester United, the team Wayne joined from Everton when he was 18.
The contract would then switch to a three-year pro deal, which would see him on around £50,000 a year with an annual signing-on fee.
At this stage, it’s understood the Rooneys have not agreed to the deal but I’m told they ‘are very likely to’.
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Last month, Wayne spoke of his pride at seeing Kai play for the Manchester United U18 team in the FA Youth Cup, coming on as a sub against Derby County in a 2-1 win at Old Trafford.
Kai’s brother Klay, 12, is also part of Manchester United’s youth set-up, while youngest, Cass, who turns eight this month, is following in his father’s footsteps at Everton’s academy.
One can imagine that Kai’s success is something Posh and Becks dreamed of for one or more of their sons. Indeed, despite signing for both Arsenal and QPR youth teams, Brooklyn notably failed to make it as a footballer.
This attention on Kai will certainly increase with the family’s new show. Sources working on the series say it is very much based on the MTV show The Osbournes but with ‘a more modern lens’.
‘This is the Rooneys’ chance to shine,’ says a source. ‘Coleen was always regarded as Victoria’s successor as queen of the WAGs.’
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So now she and Wayne are all grown up, will their talented sons help them form a whole new footballing and showbiz dynasty: Brand Rooney?