Coleen Rooney has revealed her son Kai encounters brutal abuse about his dad Wayne while playing youth football.
The ‘I’m a Celeb’ runner-up – who has been married to the Manchester United legend since 2008 – appeared on the Stick to Football podcast on Thursday (January 9) to discuss her life and family.
The 38-year-old shares four sons with Rooney, with 15-year-old Kai the eldest. Following in his father’s footsteps, the young forward currently plays for United’s academy.
Being the son of United’s record scorer certainly has its positives but equally it has made Kai a target of sorts and that’s a situation the teenager found himself in during one tournament.
Discussing the stick Kai has received when playing, Coleen revealed: “A few years ago, I remember my son Kai took a penalty at St George’s Park, where we were for a tournament. It went to penalties, Kai stepped up and just skied it.
“Afterwards I asked him how he could take a penalty like that, and he told me he was just fuming as the goalkeeper was saying: ‘Your dad’s sh*t’, and he got dead angry. It doesn’t happen to him very often, but it did then, and you can see in some games where they give you a little push. He’s strong-minded though and usually shrugs it off.”
On top of the hate that can get thrown their way, the life of a footballer – or manager – means moving to different cities and countries at the drop of a hat can be a frequent occurrence.
Former England captain Wayne spent the majority of his playing career living in the north-west while turning out for Everton and United, allowing for a settled home life for his family. However, after his second departure from his boyhood club in 2018, Rooney opted for a new adventure in the United States with DC United.
The 39-year-old left for Washington first, with his family soon following as Coleen admitted moving stateside was difficult. “[Moving to America] was a big challenge,” she confessed.
“My youngest was six months, so to pick up a family was a lot. We agreed to go and looked at it as an adventure for a few years. Wayne went before us, and I waited until school finished [for the kids] and then planned on going for two years – then come back again for my eldest to go to secondary school.
“My first thing was, as long as the kids were okay, I wanted to make sure the schools there were good. We looked and the British school was in DC, but where they wanted us to move was an hour away.
“In the end, I had to put my foot down and say no, we’ll move to where the school is, and he [Wayne] will have to travel into training. If we went as a couple and not with the kids, it would have been fine.”
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