As the cockroaches and rats swarmed over her body during her Bushtucker trial in I’m a Celebrity, Coleen Rooney’s coolness under fire impressed everyone – even her sworn enemy Rebekah Vardy.

Vardy is writing about I’m A Celebrity for The Sun, the newspaper to which her agent was ‘likely’ to have leaked stories from Coleen’s private Instagram account in 2019, according to the judge in the famous Wagatha Christie trial.

‘I’m applauding Coleen,’ wrote Becky. ‘She really held her nerve as the mealworms, cockroaches and rats crawled all over her.’

Coleen’s four children – at home in Cheshire under the care of her parents Colette and Tony – watched her trial before going to school on Monday.

‘They are so proud,’ says a source. ‘They love watching together and cheering her on.’

An Instagram post of Kai, 15, Klay, 11, Kit, eight, and Cᴀss, six, was captioned: ‘When you wake up and watch your mum smash the trial and take home them stars!! Proud boys #ImACeleb #WelcomeToTheMadHouse #MondayMotivation.’ Husband Wayne shared the same image and caption on his social media.

As the creepy-crawlies swarmed over her body during her Bushtucker trial in I’m a Celebrity, Coleen Rooney’s coolness under fire impressed everyone

Last night’s show proved the trial was not a one-off, as Coleen cleaned the camp toilets with fellow camper, Love Island’s Maura Higgins. As week two gets under way, Coleen’s team-player credentials are surely no longer in doubt.

It was Coleen’s hope people would see her as more than the Wag who outed an online snitch. She’s keen to move on from the Wagatha Christie affair and believes being seen ‘in action’ will allow her to forge a reputation beyond her trouble with Rebekah.

To that end, Coleen intended to take on every trial she could. I’m told she’s not afraid of heights, gruesome eating challenges or, as we saw, the rats.

Coleen cleaned the toilets with fellow camper, Love Island’s Maura Higgins

Friends say she can be ‘a bit of a screamer about creepy-crawlies’, though there was no evidence of that on Sunday when giant mealworms, cockroaches and crickets skittered over her bare legs and under the protective glᴀss

Friends say she can be ‘a bit of a screamer about creepy crawlies’, though there was no evidence of that on Sunday when giant mealworms, cockroaches and crickets skittered over her bare legs and under the protective glᴀss.

The trouble was, during her first week in the jungle, the public wasn’t voting for her to do them.

Hence husband Wayne intervening with a tweet on Saturday, six days after the show started. It ran: ‘Me and the boys would love to see her doing a trial and we know she’d want to put herself to the test… Let’s get voting.’ Within hours, her moment in the I’m A Celebrity spotlight was secured.

Coleen also impressed viewers with her sense of humour, describing Donald Trump as ‘very orange’ when they met and telling her mum she thought he was a ‘dirty b*****d’ after he remarked that footballers got the good-looking girls.

There is still a while to go, but it looks as if Coleen will emerge from the show having burnished her girl-next-door appeal.

Rebekah Vardy’s original observations from the sidelines about wanting her to eat ‘bull’s penis and humble pie’ now seem even more sour and vindictive.

It’s five years since that Wagatha Christie tweet, in which Coleen said ‘Becky Vardy’s account’ had been selling stories to a newspaper.

That ended with a High Court libel trial in 2022 that vindicated Coleen, found it likely Rebekah’s agent was the leaker – and ordered Rebekah to pay 90 per cent of Coleen’s (hefty) legal costs.

But what does Coleen think about Rebekah? A friend says: ‘Coleen does not give Becky a second thought. She’s not on her mind. Coleen has drawn a line. She hopes people will see past it and get to know Coleen from Liverpool rather than Wagatha Christie.’

Coleen has decided to make something of a career pivot back into the spotlight. Friends say she believes her jungle stint could relaunch her TV career

Rebekah Vardy pictured in 2022. Her original observations from the sidelines about wanting Coleen to eat ‘bull’s penis and humble pie’ now seem even more sour and vindictive

The ‘Wagatha’ line is a source of embarrᴀssment. As she explained in her Disney+ documentary, Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, she found the episode very personal and very distressing.

A friend says: ‘It took a huge toll on her mental health and was distressing for her family. She understands the humour, she gets why people love the Wagatha phrase, but it was never a joke to her.’

Now Coleen has decided to make something of a career pivot back into the spotlight. Friends say she believes her jungle stint could relaunch her TV career, which began with the well-received 2008 series Coleen’s Real Women, where she recruited naturally beautiful women to become models.

I’m told ITV plans to use her for a big fashion-led project linked to a major company, such as Next or John Lewis. An endorsement from Coleen sells clothes – like the £1,000 Toteme pyjamas she wore in an Instagram post on her way to Australia, which sold out.

Perhaps a bigger question than future career options is how Wayne, 39, will cope with her being abroad? Repeatedly in H๏τ water when younger – always as a result of excess drinking and often when Coleen was away – Wayne, now head coach of Plymouth Argyle, has not been an ideal husband.

In 2017, he was banned from driving after picking up Laura Simpson, 29, in a bar while Coleen was away, and driving her home while three times over the drink-drive limit. Simpson said they enjoyed a ‘kiss and a cuddle’.

Coleen told the documentary: ‘It was just sickening. I’ve had that feeling in my stomach a few times and I’d never wish anyone to feel that. You do think, ‘Do I actually know this person?’ when things like that happen.’

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She recalled: ‘Wayne wanted it all to go back to normal, but it wasn’t as easy as that… I just said to him: ‘I can’t carry on with this.’ Some mistakes are harder to forgive than others.’

Now, though, they are in a good place as a couple. ‘Wayne has regained Coleen’s trust, there are no trust issues between them,’ says a friend. Indeed, of all the revelations in this year’s series, the fact Wayne is a poet was surely the most unexpected.

Last week, Coleen confided in her jungle campmates that he ‘always wrote me poems’. ‘You know the H๏τel pads? He was always writing a little poem and putting it in his bag and he’d give it to me when he got home…

‘He is romantic in [some] ways. We’re not the lovey-dovey couple in public, but little things like that… keep the relationship alive. It’s special when someone’s done something just for you, and the words mean something.’

Of his public transgressions, she went on to say: ‘All he wanted to do was play football. He struggled with the fame side… he hated that. We had to grow up quick, because we were living in the public eye. It has been difficult, but we’re happy now, after all those years… we’re a team.’

Family remains Coleen’s priority. I’m told any TV work will have to allow her to balance her family life. Still, Coleen is excited by the future. ‘She thinks this is the start of a new chapter,’ says a friend.

Which makes a drenching in creepy crawlies a small price to pay.