Wayne Rooney Joins I'm A Celebrity Line-up With £800,000 Fee

Wayne Rooney is heading into the Australian jungle as the highest-paid contestant on the 26th year of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, securing an appearance fee of £800,000 for his upcoming stint on the reality show.

The 41-year-old former England captain joins a celebrity roster that spans sport, music, and television for the reality programme’s return. The opening episode airs on Monday 16 November at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with presenters Ant and Dec returning to host the nightly broadcasts from Australia.

Rooney enters the camp alongside Gavin & Stacey actress Joanna Page, Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson, Paralympian and broadcaster Ade Adepitan MBE, and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup. The ensemble also includes TV presenter AJ Odudu, comedian Jack Skipper, Love Island contestant Chloe Burrows, model Leomie Anderson, soap actress Claire Sweeney, and YouTuber Sharky, whose real name is Sharmarke Mohamud.

Meet your 2026 Campmates — I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

Having started in Everton’s youth squads at nine years old, Wayne made his first-team debut in 2002 at age 16, later moving into management with four separate clubs including Derby County, Birmingham City, and Plymouth Argyle before working as a pundit for BBC Sport.

Rooney’s £800,000 paycheck places him well above his fellow campmates. His fee is £625,000 more than the next best-paid contestant, Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson.

Contestant	Role	Reported Fee
Wayne Rooney	Football legend	£800,000
Joanna Page	Actor	£150,000
AJ Odudu	TV presenter	£150,000
Leigh Francis	Comedian	£150,000
Jack Skipper	Comedian	£50,000

Despite his commanding appearance fee, Rooney’s payout remains lower than the £1.5m reported for his wife, Coleen Rooney, during her 2024 run on the programme where she finished as runner-up behind Danny Jones.

I'm a Celebrity full line-up pictured for the first time as Wayne Rooney reveals he wants to be seen as a 'genuine person' after years of scandals and misdemeanours https://t.co/n14A4wEttd

— Post by @DailyMailCeleb on X

The Rooneys’ media presence has expanded significantly in recent years. Childhood sweethearts from Croxteth, Liverpool, Wayne and Coleen began dating at age 16 after finishing school. Wayne proposed in October 2003, an event Coleen detailed in her 2023 memoir, My Account.

“I hadn’t expected Wayne to pop the question under the lights of an Esso garage.”

Coleen Rooney, My Account

Coleen said that “It’s not the image a girl conjures up when she thinks about a marriage proposal as a rule.” The couple married in June 2008 in Portofino, Italy, in a deal covered by OK! Magazine.

Wayne Rooney Joins I'm A Celebrity Line-up With £800,000 Fee — Photo: The Independent

They share four sons: Kai, born in 2009; Klay, born in 2013; Kit, born in 2016; and Cass, born in 2018. Following high-profile legal proceedings including the Wagatha Christie trial, the family’s joint projects culminated earlier this year in the Disney+ reality series The Real Rooneys.

The network enters the new series backed by substantial audience reach from the previous run. Last year’s series launched with 11.3 million viewers and averaged 8.7m across the series, reaching 23.4m people across all platforms, equivalent to 38 per cent of the TV population.