Rebekah Vardy – live: Coleen Rooney’s triumphant messages to friends after ‘Wagatha Christie’ reveal post

It comes after Wayne Rooney told court he was asked to speak to Jamie Vardy to ‘calm down’ wife

Rebekah Vardy tells court she did not leak stories about Coleen Rooney

Coleen Rooney posted triumphant messages to her friends after she accused Rebekah Vardy’s account of being behind leaks of her personal information to The Sun, new photos show.

In previously unseen images, Coleen Rooney told her Instagram followers “Don’t play games with a girl who can play better” after she posted her infamous ‘Wagatha Christie’ message on 19 October 2019.

She added: “After years of my personal Instagram posts getting leaked to the SUN newspaper..... I’ve finally cracked it and know exactly who’s account it is !!!!.”

Ms Rooney, 36, is being sued for defamation by Ms Vardy, 40, over the offending post. The images of Coleen Rooney’s Instagram posts were submitted as evidence to the High Court during Ms Vardy’s libel trial.

On the last day of the trial yesterday, Ms Rooney’s lawyer accused Ms Vardy of carrying out a “cover up” to hide “incriminating evidence” ahead of the trial.

Ms Vardy’s lawyer accused Ms Rooney’s side of furthering “conspiracy theories” about the model allegedly deleting key message exchanges between herself and her agent Caroline Watt.

Mr Hugh Tomlinson said the footballer’s wife “accepts” her agent could have been the source of leaks to the press.

Ms Justice Steyn has now retired to consider her judgement in the case.

Key Points

• ‘I will reply but just sky diving’: Coleen’s messages after Wagatha post
• Wayne Rooney in his PJs - and other never before seen photos
• How Rebekah Vardy reacted to ‘Wagatha’ reveal post
• Revealed: Instagram stories Coleen Rooney used to ‘trap’ leaker in Wagatha sting
• What happened in the ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel case?

[20 May 2022 18:24 · Holly Bancroft]

Recap: Wayne Rooney in his PJs - and other never before seen photos

In case you missed it...

As part of the evidence bundle submitted to the High Court was a picture from Coleen Rooney’s private Instagram of Wayne and their boys in their pyjamas.

The image, which is being seen for the first time, shows the couples’ three sons Kai, Klay and Kit and father Wayne all wearing matching spotty pyjamas.

The image was key to the ‘Wagatha’ trial because Ms Rooney alleged that information from the post had been leaked to The Sun. On her public Instagram, Ms Rooney had posted a photo of herself and the boys on the bed, but information about the photo featuring Wayne made its way into the press.

After the story appeared Ms Rooney sent a warning to her followers, saying: “The GRASS strikes again!!!! I put that picture on wondering if it would appear in that horrible newspaper.”

(PA)

(PA)

[20 May 2022 18:00 · Holly Bancroft]

FA seating plan quiz

Ms Vardy’s lawyer, 68-year-old Mr Hugh Tomlinson, had a more subdued style compared to the excitable Mr Sherborne. But in one of his more lively moments in court, Mr Tomlinson took on Footbal Association family liaison officer Harpeet Robertson - who had been called as a witness by the defence.

Ms Vardy had already shown her dislike of the FA employee earlier in the trial, so Mr Tomlinson opened with: “When you first met Mrs Vardy, the two of you never got on?”

“No that’s not correct”, Mrs Robertson hit out. “There was a bad feeling between you?” Mr Tomlinson asked.

“Not from my side,” maintained Ms Robertson, adding combatively that in her evidence “there are no assumptions just facts”.

(PA)

Ms Robertson testified that Ms Vardy and her guests had sat near Coleen Rooney, in the wrong seats, at a Euro 2016 match so that she could get more press attention. “Becky’s evidence on this topic is simply untrue,” Ms Robertson said.

In an extraordinary exchange in court, Mr Tomlinson started quizzing Ms Robertson on how well she could remember seating plans from the Euro 2016 England vs Wales game – asking: “Joe Hart? Harry Kane?” Ms Robertson proceeded to recall where she thought their family’s seats were at the match six years previous.

Ms Robertson maintained that she could remember “Coleen’s seats and Mrs Vardy’s seats because I had to look at my notes on several occasions”.

[20 May 2022 17:45 · Holly Bancroft]

Who’s Davy Jones?

In a memorable moment, Rebekah Vardy asked the court “who’s Davy Jones?” following a nautical reference by Ms Rooney’s laywer on day three.

Mr Sherborne had accused Ms Vardy of deleting crucial evidence and complained that messages could not be recovered from her agent’s phone because it was “now in Davy Jones’ Locker”. Ms Watt’s phone was dropped into the sea on a boat trip in Scotland last year, the court heard.

Ms Justice Steyn had to clarify what was going on to Ms Vardy, saying “it’s an expression”. Davy Jone’s Locker is a metaphor for the bottom of the sea, where drowned sailors and shipwrecks ultimately go and it was popularised by the film franchise Pirates of the Caribbean.

[20 May 2022 16:55 · Holly Bancroft]

‘Don’t play games with a girl who can play better’

Ms Rooney posted a triumphant message after her “Wagatha Christie” reveal to her private Instagram followers, saying: “Don’t play games with a girl who can play better.”

Speaking about why she posted this Instagram story, she told the court: “I felt like I had found out who it was... It was a quote that I found, and I put it up, and it was just something that I did.”

[20 May 2022 16:31 · Holly Bancroft]

Wayne in the box

Although this trial is between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, Wayne Rooney’s appearance in the witness box wrapped the pair’s husbands up in the battle too. Wayne Rooney told the High Court that he had an “awkward” conversation with Jamie Vardy to get his wife to “calm down” her media activities during Euro 2016 at the request of England manager Roy Hodgson.

“I think we all knew that it was an awkward subject,” Mr Rooney told the court. “So I agreed to speak to Mr Vardy... to ask him to ask his wife to calm down.”

Ms Vardy’s legal team has denied that this conversation ever took place and challenged Mr Rooney on this in court. He responded: “I’m sat here under oath. I 100 per cent spoke to Mr Vardy about this situation.”

Jamie Vardy’s explosive intervention

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy issued an explosive statement outside of court, accusing Mr Rooney of “talking nonsense”. He said in a statement: “Wayne is talking nonsense. He must be confused because he never spoke to me about issues concerning Becky’s media work at Euro 2016.”

The footballer missed all of his wife’s testimony in court but arrived on day six to see his former England teammate Wayne Rooney take to the witness stand.

The Vardys walk out

Following the escalaton between the husbands, the Vardys left court early and missed most of the expert witnesses’ testimony. One of Ms Vardy’s legal team told the court that they left because “Mrs Vardy isn’t feeling very well”.

[20 May 2022 16:21 · Holly Bancroft]

Coleen’s written draft

During Coleen Rooney’s time in the witness box, she revealed that before she had posted her infamous ‘Wagatha Christie’ reveal message she drafted it in her notebook.

She told the court that she did not know what had happened to the hand-written note, saying she had thrown the notebook away. During cross-examination, Ms Rooney said that she likes to write things out by hand and did so on this occasion, before sending the text to her brother in a Whatsapp message.

Throughout the trial Ms Rooney took notes in her leopard print Caroline Gardner notepad, while Rebekah Vardy doodled pictures of flowers and desert islands in hers.

(Reuters)

[20 May 2022 16:15 · Holly Bancroft]

Revealed: Instagram stories Coleen Rooney used to ‘trap’ leaker in Wagatha sting

More stories posted by Coleen Rooney on her private Instagram to “trap” Rebekah Vardy have been revealed.

The stories are seen by only one or two people and show the different stages of Ms Rooney’s elaborate plan to find out who was leaking her information.

(PA)

(PA)

(PA)

[20 May 2022 16:00 · Holly Bancroft]

Wayne Rooney in his PJs - and other never before seen photos

As part of the evidence bundle submitted to the High Court was a picture from Coleen Rooney’s private Instagram of Wayne and their boys in their pyjamas.

The image, which is being seen for the first time, shows the couples’ three sons Kai, Klay and Kit and father Wayne all wearing matching spotty pyjamas.

The image was key to the ‘Wagatha’ trial because Ms Rooney alleged that information from the post had been leaked to The Sun. On her public Instagram, Ms Rooney had posted a photo of herself and the boys on the bed, but information about the photo featuring Wayne made its way into the press.

After the story appeared Ms Rooney sent a warning to her followers, saying: “The GRASS strikes again!!!! I put that picture on wondering if it would appear in that horrible newspaper.”

(PA)

(PA)

(PA)

(PA)

[20 May 2022 15:45 · Holly Bancroft]

‘I can’t let her getaway with this’: How Rebekah Vardy reacted to ‘Wagatha’ reveal post

Rebekah Vardy angrily messaged her agent the day of Coleen Rooney’s ‘Wagatha Christie’ reveal post to say “I can’t just sit back and let her get away with this.”

Ms Vardy, 40, is suing Ms Rooney, 36, for defamation over the offending post, in which she was accused of leaking Ms Rooney’s personal information to The Sun. The seven day trial ended at the High Court on Thursday and Ms Justice Steyn is now considering her judgement.

In messages to her agent, submitted as evidence to the court, Ms Vardy said: “I can’t just sit back and let her get away with this. I’m getting so much abuse, people who I thought were my friends are turning on me. Megs is getting sh** at school this is not just a ignore and move on for me x”.

(PA)

[20 May 2022 15:30 · Holly Bancroft]

Peter Andre’s chipolata

On day one of the trial, barrister David Sherborne attempted to show Ms Vardy had little regard for people’s privacy by carefully reading out the words: “Peter’s hung like a small chipolata, shaved, slobbery, lasts five minutes.”

He was reading the headline of a 2004 News of The World interview with Ms Vardy. Holding out an A3 printout of the article to Ms Vardy in the witness box, he continued to read excepts from the piece, which claimed former pop star Mr Andre had “the smallest trouser equipment I’ve ever seen”.

Ms Vardy later told the court the interview was “one of my biggest regrets”. Mr Andre also dramatically hit back at the re-surfaced interview, telling his Instagram followers: “It’s been the butt of all jokes. I’ve take it for 15 years.”