BALLROO DANCING
Strictly chiefs are hoping to net Coleen after she had to cancel last year’s bid
STRICTLY Come Dancing bosses are hoping Coleen Rooney will quickstep up for this year’s series.
The mum of four – married to Everton ace Wayne – is top of the wish-list for the BBC show, say sources.
She’s been waiting in the wings since last year when she was approached but had to turn it down after finding out she was pregnant with son Cass, it is claimed.
Insiders say she was replaced by Holby City actress Chizzy Akudolu at the eleventh hour.
A source said: “Coleen deferred her place last year after falling pregnant but has the option of taking it up this year – and talks have begun to make that happen.
“This would be one of Strictly’s biggest signings ever. And it would be a ratings sensation. Producers know that they will need to pull out all the stops to land Coleen. But they have been told she is interested.”
Since hitting the limelight as one of the original WAGS, Coleen, 32, has become a star in her own right. She has had her own magazine column, released a fitness DVD and had a clothing range with Littlewoods.
But last year was a tough one for her after husband Wayne was arrested for drink-driving on a night out with Laura Simpson, a lettings manager he’d just met in a cocktail bar.
Coleen, who was pregnant at the time and on holiday in Majorca, was devastated. The couple now have four sons – Kai, eight, Klay, four, Kit, three, and Cass, two months.
She later admitted their nine-year marriage had come close to ending, but said she had stayed with Wayne, 32, because she loved him.
Coleen wouldn’t be the first WAG to hit the Strictly dancefloor. Abbey Clancy, wife of Stoke footballer Peter Crouch, won the show in 2013 with partner Aljaž Škorjanec. A source said: “It would be Coleen’s chance to step out from Wayne’s shadow and prove she’s not just a footballer’s wife. And it would mean Wayne would be in the audience, which is sure to be a ratings hit.” Strictly returns in September. Other names in the frame include The Chase favourite Mark Labbett aka The Beast, ex-eastender Lorna Fitzgerald, and breakfast TV rivals Piers Morgan and Dan Walker.