Coleen Rooney calls Rebekah Vardy ‘vicious’ for discussing leaking a story about her dead sister and accuses her of doing things ‘only to be in the public eye’
- The dramatic story will be retold in a Disney+ documentary airing on October 18
Coleen Rooney has blasted Rebekah Vardy as ‘vicious’ for discussing leaking a story about her dead sister.
During the famous Wagatha Christie trial, text messages between Rebekah and her agent Caroline Watt where they talked about leaking stories were revealed to the court.
One which Coleen has described in an interview with The Times as being the most hurtful came after Rebekah, who Wayne’s wife accuses of doing things ‘only to be in the public eye’, discovered Coleen had blocked her on Instagram.
‘What a c*** x’ Vardy wrote, before following it up with: ‘Maybe I should say something about Rosie x’. Rosie McLoughlin was Coleen’s sister who died aged 14 following a lifelong battle with Rett syndrome.
In July 2022, Coleen emerged victorious in the famous Wagatha Christie libel battle, with Rebekah Vardy ordered to pay up to £1.5million for her legal fees.
Rebekah had sued Coleen for libel over an accusation her account had been used to leak details of Coleen’s private life to the press. This came after Coleen staged an elaborate sting operation to find out who was passing on stories about her to The Sun.
Coleen Rooney departs the High Court with her husband and former England football captain Wayne Rooney in London on May 10, 2022
Rebekah Vardy leaves the High Court in London on May 10, 2022, amid the Wagatha Christie court case
Rosie McLoughlin was Coleen’s sister who died aged 14 following a lifelong battle with Rett syndrome (pictured)
How it all began: On October 9, 2019, Coleen Rooney, now 36, accused Rebekah Vardy’s Instagram account of leaking ‘false stories’ about her to the press (above)
Of the discussion surrounding her sister, Coleen said: ‘How can someone try to create a story around someone’s sister who’s passed away? How can you be that vicious?’
‘I’ve never fallen out with the partner of another footballer in my life and I never thought I would,’ Coleen revealed in her latest interview.
That was until she suspected Rebekah of leaking stories about her to the press.
However Coleen said that before the drama, she had already felt her and Rebekah’s friendship was ‘unnatural’.
She said: ‘I can tell when someone is trying to force a friendship because of your status. I’m very savvy about that.
‘And I felt like the friendship Rebekah was trying to put on me was unnatural.’
READ MORE: Coleen Rooney breaks down over Wagatha Christie trial in new documentary and reveals husband Wayne worried legal feud was making her ‘sick’
She added that she ‘knew she (Rebekah) enjoyed the limelight’ and would ‘do things only to be in the public eye’.
Coleen added: ‘And the more I knew, the more I wasn’t surprised.’
On her strategy for the court case, ahead of a tell-all Disney+ documentary, Coleen also revealed her husband Wayne told her to ‘just tell the truth, because no one can go wrong with the truth.’
She added: ‘If you lie, you get nervous and get caught.’
In what she described as her ‘time to speak’, the drama-filled story will be covered in a Disney+ documentary dropping on October 18 – which will follow Coleen and her husband Wayne Rooney through the high-profile court case.
Between September 2017 and October 2019 The Sun ran a number of articles about Coleen, including that she travelled to Mexico to look into baby ‘gender selection’ treatment, her plan to revive her TV career and the flooding of her basement.
But on October 9, 2019, Coleen shared a jaw-dropping Instagram post revealing she had been sharing false stories and limiting the viewers to just one person to see if they ended up in the newspaper. The goal was to uncover the leak.
The iconic end line read: ‘It’s ……. Rebekah Vardy’s account’. The public dispute makes headlines around the world, with the hashtag #WagathaChristie trending.
Of the reveal, Coleen said Wayne had tried to convince her not to post it and instead ‘just get rid of your Instagram’.
‘No that’s not the point,’ she said – adding she then went on to conduct her sting operation herself.
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice, London, on May 13, 2022, for the high-profile libel battle between Rebekah Vardy and herself
Having her say: Coleen recently opened up about the trial and documentary in her bombshell interview with British Vogue
Pictured: Rebekah sensationally lost the ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel case with Coleen in July 2022
Coleen said: ‘Wayne’s not a big social media person and keeping things to myself is my coping mechanism. I know people will think, ‘But he’s your husband!’
‘I know he’s my husband but it’s my battle. What am I going to get out of telling him? There’s nothing he can do. I’ve got to do this by myself.’
Rebekah was said to have scored one of the worst own goals in British legal history after a High Court judge dismissed her evidence as ‘evasive or implausible’ and accused her of deliberately deleting WhatsApp messages central to the case.
Of finding out she had won the case, Coleen said it ‘took a while to sink’.
‘But when I came downstairs that morning I thought, ‘It got done,” she added. ‘And that was a nice feeling.’
Wagatha Christie timeline: How Coleen and Rebekah’s war unfolded
September 2017 to October 2019 – The Sun runs a number of articles about Coleen, including that she travelled to Mexico to look into baby ‘gender selection’ treatment, her plan to revive her TV career and the flooding of her basement.
October 9, 2019 – Coleen uses social media to accuse Rebekah of selling stories from her private Instagram account to the tabloids.
Coleen says she spent five months attempting to work out who was sharing information about her and her family based on posts she had made on her personal social media page.
After sharing a series of ‘false’ stories and using a process of elimination, Coleen claims they were viewed by one Instagram account, belonging to Rebekah.
Rebekah, then pregnant with her fifth child, denies the allegations and says various people had access to her Instagram over the years.
She claims to be ‘so upset’ by Coleen’s accusation, later adding: ‘I thought she was my friend but she completely annihilated me.’
The public dispute makes headlines around the world, with the hashtag #WagathaChristie trending.
February 13, 2020 – In a tearful appearance on ITV’s Loose Women, Rebekah says the stress of the dispute caused her to have severe anxiety attacks and she ‘ended up in hospital three times’. Coleen says in a statement that she does not want to ‘engage in further public debate’.
Shortly after Coleen’s public accusation, Rebekah – who was pregnant and on holiday in Dubai at the time – denied any involvement (above)
June 23, 2020 – It emerges that Rebekah has launched libel proceedings against Coleen.
Rebekah’s lawyers allege she ‘suffered extreme distress, hurt, anxiety and embarrassment as a result of the publication of the post and the events which followed’.
November 19-20, 2020 – The libel battle has its first High Court hearing in London. A judge rules that Coleen’s October 2019 post ‘clearly identified’ Rebekah as being ‘guilty of the serious and consistent breach of trust’.
Mr Justice Warby concludes that the ‘natural and ordinary’ meaning of the posts was that Rebekah had ‘regularly and frequently abused her status as a trusted follower of Coleen’s personal Instagram account by secretly informing The Sun of Coleen’s private posts and stories’.
February 8-9, 2022 – A series of explosive messages between Rebekah and her agent Caroline Watt – which Coleen’s lawyers allege were about her – are revealed at a preliminary court hearing.
The court is told Rebekah was not referring to Coleen when she called someone a ‘nasty bitch’ in one exchange with Ms Watt.
Coleen’s lawyers seek further information from the WhatsApp messages, but the court is told that Ms Watt’s phone fell into the North Sea after a boat she was on hit a wave, before further information could be extracted from it.
February 14 – Coleen is refused permission to bring a High Court claim against Ms Watt for misuse of private information to be heard alongside the libel battle. A High Court judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, says the bid was brought too late and previous opportunities to make the claim had not been taken.
April 13 – Ms Watt is not fit to give oral evidence at the upcoming libel trial, the High Court is told as the case returns for another hearing.
The agent revokes permission for her witness statement to be used, and withdraws her waiver which would have allowed Sun journalists to say whether she was a source of the allegedly leaked stories.
April 29 – Rebekah ‘appears to accept’ that her agent was the source of allegedly leaked stories, Coleen’s barrister David Sherborne tells the High Court. He argues that a new witness statement submitted by Rebekah suggests Ms Watt was the source but Rebekah claims she ‘did not authorise or condone her’.
Rebekah’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson says the statement did not contain ‘any change whatever in the pleaded case’, with her legal team having no communication with Ms Watt.
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