‘What will Coleen Rooney’s debut fashion collection be like?’ is the question we should have been asking. Instead, everyone was wondering, will she be wearing her wedding ring?

This morning’s launch in a Mayfair hotel of ‘By Coleen’, Coleen Rooney’s capsule clothing range in association with Primark, should have been all about the clothes. But Monday’s headlines (‘Roo the Day’) meant that once again Coleen’s marriage became the story of the moment.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, following a pre-Brit Awards party, Wayne Rooney was photographed in the company of two women in a Manchester hotel bar ‘the worse for wear’ which might not have been newsworthy were it not for the fact that Rooney has form. Over the years since their marriage in 2008 there have been booze and women-related scandals, and plenty of ultimatums from Coleen.

When on Monday she was pictured out shopping in Cheshire minus her wedding ring it began to look like this domestic crisis could overshadow today’s proceedings.

Coleen Rooney has launched a 74-piece collection with Primark, including a pale khaki unlined midi trench at £34, scuba joggers, £14, and a scuba long-sleeved top, £18 

Coleen models a casual look of ‘premium basics’, including a £16 tie back shirt 

Coleen in £16 white Bermuda shorts. Her inspiration for the collection was ‘mum on the run on a budget’

But, I’m happy to report, the ring is back on, nestled next to an enormous lozenge-shaped diamond, and its owner’s giant dimpled smile is at full beam, green gold eyes sparkling, as she proudly shows me round her collection – Primark’s first ‘premium’ collection.

 How could it have been otherwise? The Coleen we have come to know is pragmatic, down to earth, and expert at keeping carrying on; there’s no way she would let anything stand in the way of her commitments. After all the Primark deal is said to be seven figures.

Maybe she took her ring off for 24 hours to make a point. Or maybe she takes it off (much more likely in my view) now that she’s getting stuck into cleaning out the pigs – a recent present for her ten-year-old son Kit, apparently. Either way no one in the UK in 2026 is in any doubt that Coleen will rise above and keep on rising because we have been following her story and this is – whatever Wayne gets up to – Coleen’s moment.

Coleen Rooney, who turns 40 in April, has been in the public eye since she was a Liverpool schoolgirl going out with a schoolboy who turned out to be a footballing legend. In 2006 she was one of the WAGS in Baden Baden, who established the reputation of footballers’ wives and girlfriends as compulsive shoppers and for some reason (maybe the endless Cricket carrier bags) became known as the one who really liked to shop and really knew her labels (Chloe when Phoebe Philo was at the helm and Stella McCartney mostly).

She married Wayne in 2008 and knuckled down to raising a family of four boys (two of whom are now at Manchester United’s Academy) while also writing books, fashion columns and fronting a campaign for George at Asda. But it was the Wagatha Christie trial in 2022 that well and truly put her on the map.

The libel case – brought by fellow footballer’s wife Rebekah Vardy after Rooney accused her of leaking stories from her private social media account – was a media sensation, Coleen arriving every day wearing a surgical boot and calmly, devastatingly, making her case.

She won in court, but more importantly won the moral high ground and the hearts of anyone who followed it, establishing herself overnight as sharp, decent and above all entirely herself. A real person in a world of fakes.

It was a turning point. There followed in quick succession an autobiography (her second); a stint on I’m A Celebrity… (she was runner up but got the Queen of Mum’s prize for the touching scenes when two of her boys visited the camp); a Vogue interview (her second); a Disney Plus documentary currently in the making (they were filming at the Primark launch).

And now, at the start of 2026, it’s beginning to feel like Coleen is filling the yawning vacancy for a relatable woman other women trust. You can see why Primark wanted her on board. She’s a self-confessed fashion and shopping obsessive (in the past she’s admitted to sometimes rebuying things she already has because she’s forgotten), but she still nips out to buy her own chips. It helps too that she’s very pretty and small, rather than fragile and fashion skinny.

Today she was wearing a By Coleen tie-back striped pure cotton shirt (£16) half tucked in, ‘French tuck’ style; By Coleen balloon jeans (£18) and Chanel two-tone sling backs. She looked great, relaxed and confident and open. The many reports of her being a little bit wary and reserved don’t apply today. Maybe she’s just in her element.

The jeans, rough-hemmed, good shade of blue are something she’s quietly proud of. ‘I used to think “oh, I don’t know”,’ (about balloon styles), but now she loves them. ‘I think it’s about the length and I made these less wide.’ This particular pair has been working hard for her this week; she wore them to a Lily Allen concert a few days ago and had to scramble to find them.

The idea behind Primark’s first premium collection is ‘mums on the run on a budget’ – premium basics that can take you from school run, to daily errands, to brunch, or out for a drink.

She wants all the clothes to be easily mixed and matched – hence the palette of creams, browns, khaki and black – and worn the way she would: ‘You could have your lounge suit on and when you go out, put a trench on top.’

She points at a well-cut pale khaki unlined midi trench on a mannequin – astonishingly the most expensive item in the 74 piece collection at £34. ‘I really like it with the cream tracksuit underneath.’

Asked to pick her favourite piece, Coleen chooses a white funnel neck blouson jacket in a papery technical fabric (£26). ‘I wore it for a Pilates event the other day with exercise wear and then changed into jeans and a heel.’

Coleen wore her ‘By Coleen’ balloon jeans (£18) to show off the collection 

Coleen’s favourite item in the collection – a white funnel neck blouson jacket – which retails for £26

There are dressier items available. They were modelled by Coleen in a photoshoot on the wall of the hotel

Coleen turns 40 this year and is deliberately designing for her peers but one of the twenty-something Primark team is wearing theirs with thick stretch black Capri pants – pretty chic for a tenner.

On the wall of the hotel suite behind us is a giant picture of Coleen wearing the only dressy item in the collection, a chocolate satin lace-trimmed asymmetric hemmed slip top and skirt (£14 and £16). ‘I love getting dressed up of an evening,’ she explains. ‘But I don’t do it that often so I wanted this collection to be clothes I would wear. And I wanted to make sure every piece was something the customer was going to get wear out of.’

The second By Coleen range is in the pipeline, she flashes that smile again ‘and this one will come quicker’ she says. ‘I’m used to working with the team and they know my input.’ What would they say they’ve discovered about her so far: ‘The fit is a big thing for me and I’m quite hands on.’ That and quality: ‘In the past I’ve worked with fabrics that weren’t the best.’

The quality of By Coleen is crazily good for the price; the fabrics feel substantial, the zips and poppers are solid and glossy, the soft T-shirts come with a little light ‘elevating’ shoulder padding to make you look a bit more pulled together. What’s not to love?

Coleen’s Primark collection will be available in store and online for click and collect from 10th March