I’m A Celeb’s Coleen Rooney breaks down in tears as she opens up about family tragedy

19 November 2024, 06:56 | Updated: 19 November 2024, 08:48

Coleen Rooney has broken down in tears as she opened up about a family tragedy on I’m A Celeb.

The 38-year-old opened up about losing her little sister, Rosie, who died at the age of 14 after a battle with Rett syndrome.

It came after boxer Barry McGuigan spoke about the death of his daughter, Danika, to the rest of the campmates. She lost her battle with cancer in 2019, aged 33.

He told the camp: “‘[Danika] had leukaemia, when I was making the boxing with Daniel Day Lewis, three weeks from the end I had to leave because she’d been diagnosed with leukaemia, they thought she wasn’t going to get better but she fought back and she won it. She had two years of chemo.”

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Rooney later confided in Dean McCullough and Oti Mabuse, saying: “My mum and dad lost my sister so I know exactly what he’s going through.

“That’s so sad for the one family.”

She explained: “I don’t usually get worked up, it takes me a lot, but to see, even when Rosie died, I kept it together for them, my mum and dad.”

McCullough said: “But then you do need to eventually let it out.”

“That’s the thing,” Rooney replied. “It’s when you’re away and in a different environment. It’s when you’ve got time to stop and think.”

The WAG went on to reveal that the anniversary of Rosie’s death would be coming up in January.

“She was 14 when she died, she’d be 26 now,” she said. “It’s hard to lose a child, I’ve always said that… so we’re lucky to have what we’ve got.”

Rooney’s parents, Colette and Tony McLoughlin, fostered Rosie when she was two.

Previously speaking in her Disney+ documentary, Rooney said: “Rosie she struggled. She couldn’t walk and she couldn’t talk. She would be in pain and sick but she would still put a smile on her face.”

Her health got worse as time went on, with her being forced to go to intensive care several times.

She was able to return home in Liverpool for her last few days and had “one last sleepover”.