Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy: Who are the women embroiled in a social media feud?
Former friends involved in row over leaked stories
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Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy are in the midst of a social media feud regarding the sale of fake stories to the press.
On Wednesday, Rooney claimed she was forced to act after a series of posts from her private Instagram account appeared in the media.
She has publicly accused Vardy of being the individual who was leaking the private information. Vardy has however denied these allegations.
The public dispute has caused a frenzy on Twitter with Rooney’s initial tweet receiving more than 136,000 likes.
The row has also inspired hundreds of memes with some comparing Rooney to Agatha Christie, the best-selling mystery novelist.
As the drama continues to unfold, here’s everything you need to know about Rooney and Vardy, from why they’re famous to how they first met.
Who is Coleen Rooney?
Coleen, the eldest of four children, was born in Liverpool to parents Tony and Colette McLoughlin.
She has over 1m followers on her official Twitter page, and over 750,000 on her Instagram.
The 33-year-old is probably best known as the wife of former England football captain Wayne Rooney.
The pair met when they were just 12 years old and began dating when they were 16, before marrying in Portofino, Italy, in 2008
Rooney has forged a career of her own writing columns for Closer and OK! magazine and has fronted campaigns for brands such as George at Asda and Littlewoods.
The couple have four children together, Kai, Klay Anthony, Kit and Cass.
Who is Rebekah Vardy?
Rebekah Vardy is Leicester footballer Jamie Vardy’s wife. The couple met in 2014 when she was working as a nightclub promoter for the sportsman’s birthday
The two married in 2016 and they have two children together – Sofia and Finlay. Vardy is currently pregnant with their third child.
The 37-year-old has two children, Megan and Taylor, from previous relationships. Jamie also has another daughter, Ella, from his previous relationship with Emma Daggett.
While Vardy rose to fame as Jamie's wife, she has become a regular fixture on chat shows like Good Morning Britain, This Morning and Loose Women.
She has also appeared on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! in 2017, where she was the third person eliminated that season.
How did Rooney and Vardy meet?
The two women met through their husbands who played football together with the England national team during their career while also playing against each other in club football.
Both Rooney and Vardy would regularly attend matches and have been pictured together on several occasions.
Together they were labelled as WAGs (wives and girlfriends) alongside Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Cole.
Have they argued before?
While Rooney and Vardy have never publicly clashed before, their husbands have.
In 2016, reports surfaced that Wayne and Jamie had several heated debates during the Euro 2016 tournament.
According to The Times, Wayne advised his players and their partners to avoid social media and to attempt to keep a low profile before an important match.
It was understood that the captain spoke to Jamie about the prominence of his wife in the media after they published their wedding photographs in Hello! magazine and she was posting regular tweets.
Why have Rooney and Vardy fallen out?
On Wednesday, Rooney took to Twitter to claim that Vardy had leaked stories from her Instagram account to The Sun on Twitter.
In the post, Rooney said she had devised an elaborate scheme to establish which of her followers on the social media platform was passing information to the newspaper.
Rooney claimed she worked out it was the I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! star after she blocked everyone apart from Vardy from seeing her Instagram stories.
“It's been tough keeping it to myself and not making any comment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked; however, I had to. Now I know for certain which account/individual it's come from,” Rooney wrote.
"I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It's ... Rebekah Vardy's account."
Has Vardy responded to the allegations?
In reply to the post Vardy denied ever speaking to journalists about the mother-of-four and said she was disgusted at the allegation.
”As I have just said to you on the phone, I wish you had called me if you thought this,” Vardy wrote on Instagram.
“I never speak to anyone about you as various journalists who have asked me to over the years can vouch for.”
Vardy’s spokeswoman told The Independent she was consulting with her legal team over the accusation.
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