Connect with us

Published

on

Wayne Rooney has revealed he would drink alcohol until he passed out to cope with the pressures of professional football in his early 20s.

In a new podcast hosted by former rugby league star Rob Burrow, 38-year-old Rooney said his “release was alcohol” when he faced challenges both on and off the pitch.

“When I was in my early 20s, I’d spend a couple of days at home and wouldn’t move out of the house and drink almost until I passed out,” the former England striker said.

“I didn’t want to be around people because sometimes you feel embarrassed and sometimes you feel like you’ve let people down.

“Ultimately I didn’t know how else to deal with it, so I chose alcohol to try and help me get through that,” Rooney added.

“There were people there for me to speak to but I chose not to do that and tried to deal with it myself.

“When you do that and don’t take the help and guidance of others, you can really be in a low place and I was for a few years with that.

More on Wayne Rooney

“Thankfully now I am not afraid to go and speak to people over some issues which I may have.”

The now-Birmingham City manager made his Premier League debut for Everton in 2002 aged 16. He joined Manchester United two years later in a then-record £27m move.

Rooney scored 53 goals for England and is Manchester United‘s all-time leading goalscorer.

File photo dated 10-02-2007 of Sir Alex Ferguson with Wayne Rooney. It's been 10 years since Sir Alex Ferguson's last match in charge of Manchester United. His trophy-laden reign at Manchester United was illuminated by his often fiery rhetoric. On Wayne Rooney's decision to sign a new contract "Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it's a better cow than the one you've got in the field." Issue date: Thursday May 18, 2023.
Image:
Sir Alex Ferguson with Wayne Rooney in 2007

He spent 13 years at Old Trafford before playing for Everton, DC United and Derby.

Rugby legend Burrow and his wife Lindsey are set to interview sporting legends including Jonny Wilkinson and Dame Kelly Holmes during his new seven-part podcast series.

Rob Burrow with his wife Lindsey Burrow and their daughters, Maya, left, and Macy
Image:
Rob Burrow and his wife Lindsey (pictured with their daughters) are set to interview sporting legends

Burrow uses AI technology and a computerised voice to communicate and ‘eye gaze’ technology to quiz his podcast guests.

Read more:
Five things we learn from Coleen Rooney’s Wagatha documentary
The ‘barefooted Indian’ who took 1930s football by storm
Newcastle Utd player banned for 10 months over betting scandal

Rooney also praised Burrow’s “inspiring” way of dealing with motor neurone disease and referenced his wife Coleen‘s sister Rosie, who died from Rett syndrome aged 14.

“I know first-hand the impact this can have on yourself and the people closest to you,” Rooney said.

“Everyone has to change the way of living and I had that with my sister-in-law who suffered not the same illness, but something as severe.

“Your energy and you staying strong really helps everyone around you. I will always be here, and your family and close friends will always be there, to help you with whatever you need.”

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail

Published

on

By

Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail

A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.

Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.

“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.

The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.

Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.

He also set up social media accounts in his name.

Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.

Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.

The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”

Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.

Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
Image:
Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA

In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”

Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”

Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”

The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.

‘I know where you live’

On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.

The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.

Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”

Man accused of stalking Shirley Ballas
Image:
Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA

Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.

The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.

“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.

“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”

Kyle Shaw leaves Liverpool Crown Court, where he is charged with stalking Strictly judge Shirley Ballas.
Pic: PA
Image:
Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA

Read more from Sky News:
Cast of Beatles films revealed

Tractor crashes into houses in Cheshire

Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.

He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”

Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Gary Glitter made bankrupt after failing to pay £500k compensation to victim

Published

on

By

Gary Glitter made bankrupt after failing to pay £500k compensation to victim

Gary Glitter has been made bankrupt after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman he abused when she was 12 years old.

She sued the disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, after he was found guilty of attacking her and two other schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.

Glitter, 80, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 and released in 2023 but was recalled to prison less than six weeks later after breaching his parole conditions.

A judge awarded the woman £508,800, including £381,000 in lost earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment, saying she was subjected to abuse “of the most serious kind”.

The court heard she had not worked for decades due to the trauma of being repeatedly raped and “humiliated” by the singer.

Gary Glitter has lost a parole board bid to be freed from jail.
Pic:Met Police/PA
Image:
Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015. Pic: Met Police/PA

Glitter was made bankrupt last month at the County Court at Torquay and Newton Abbot, in Devon – the county where he is reportedly serving his sentence in Channings Wood prison, in Newton Abbot.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the woman, said: “We confirm that Gadd has been made bankrupt following our client’s application.

More on Crime

“As he has done throughout, Gadd has refused to cooperate with the process and continues to treat his victims with contempt.

“We hope and trust that the parole board will take his behaviour into account in any future parole applications, as it clearly demonstrates that he has never changed, shows no remorse and remains a serious risk to the public.”

Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.

He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.

Read more from Sky News:
UK set to be hotter than Greece or Spain
Mother killed by drunk-driver still on road over test delays

His sentence for the 2016 convictions expires in February 2031.

Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.

But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan revealed in line-up for Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films

Published

on

By

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan revealed in line-up for Sam Mendes' four Beatles films

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles films – with a Stranger Things star also portraying one of the Fab Four.

The two Irish actors will be joined by London-born performers Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

The cast for the Sam Mendes project was revealed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, with all four appearing on stage and taking a bow together in Beatles style.

Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson stand onstage to promote the upcoming "The Beatles" movies during a Sony Pictures presentation.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
(L-R) Mescal, Quinn, Keoghan and Dickinson appeared together at the announcement. Pic: Reuters

Mendes is making four interconnected films – one from the perspective of each of the band members – and they are all set to be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.

It marks the first time The Beatles and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.

Playing McCartney is another big role for 29-year-old Mescal, who recently starred in the Gladiator sequel and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for Aftersun.

Barry Keoghan – who also got an Oscar nod for The Banshees of Inisherin – will portray the other surviving Beatles member, Ringo Starr.

More on The Beatles

The Beatles
Image:
Pic: PA

Meanwhile, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who appeared with long hair as Eddie Munson in the fourth series, takes up the role of George Harrison.

Harris Dickinson has the challenge of stepping into the shoes of perhaps the most famous Beatle, John Lennon.

The 28-year-old recently starred in erotic thriller Babygirl with Nicole Kidman and also appeared in satire Triangle of Sadness.

Mendes told the industry audience at CinemaCon there is “still plenty to explore” despite the Beatles’ rise having being well chronicled.

Read more from Sky News:
Prince Andrew accuser has ‘days to live’
NASA astronaut takes some blame for getting stranded

The Oscar-winning British director is known for films including American Beauty, First World War movie 1917, and Bond outings Skyfall and Spectre.

Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman said the close release of all four films in three years’ time will be “the first bingeable theatrical experience”.

“We are going to dominate the culture that month,” he added.

Continue Reading

Trending