Footballers’ wives face off at High Court in ‘Wagatha’ trial: Rebekah Vardy in tears on witness stand

Footballers’ wives Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy have faced each other in a UK High Court at the opening of their “Wagatha Christie” libel trial over a social media post.

Rebekah Vardy broke down in tears as she told the High Court that online trolls threatened to rape her baby daughter.

Ms Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, is locked in a libel battle – dubbed by the media as the “Wagatha Christie” trial – with Coleen Rooney, wife of former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney. The 40-year-old is suing Ms Rooney for publicly accusing her of leaking “false stories” about Mr Rooney's private life to the media in 2019. Ms Rooney is defending the libel claim on the basis of truth and public interest.

The online spat between the high-profile footballers’ wives has escalated into a High Court battle involving top-name lawyers with costs estimated to run into millions of dollars.

Ms Vardy, a mum-of-five who was seven months pregnant when Ms Rooney accused her of leaking stories, wept as she gave evidence on Wednesday, The Sun reports.

She has faced a full day of questioning at the High Court, with a judge hearing a series of bombshell allegations that she leaked information to the media, according to the outlet.

Towards the middle of the afternoon, she began to sob as she told of the impact the accusation has had.

The court heard that online trolls called Ms Vardy a “rat-faced b***h” and told her that her baby should be “put in an incinerator” when she was seven months pregnant.

Rebekah Vardy leaving the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand on May 10, 2022 in London, England. Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images.

On the second day of the trial, Ms Vardy confirmed she had tried to leak a story about footballer Danny Drinkwater being arrested for drink-driving to the Sun. But, she told the High Court, the attempt to leak the story was a one-off.

Ms Rooney’s barrister David Sherborne read a WhatsApp exchange between Ms Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt. The High Court heard that Ms Vardy had told Ms Watt that she wanted to be paid for providing information about Mr Drinkwater leaving police custody after crashing his car.

Mr Drinkwater is a former Leicester City team-mate of Mrs Vardy’s husband, Jamie.

Mr Sherborne said Ms Vardy sent information about Mr Drinkwater spending a night in prison to Watt, along with the message: “I want paying for this x.”

After she was told the The Sun had already obtained the story about Mr Drinkwater’s arrest from another source at the police station, Ms Vardy said she was “fuming I didn’t give it to you (Watt) earlier”.

Ms Watt replied: “That would have been a fortune,” along with the cry-laughing emoji, and instead suggested getting in touch with paparazzi agency Splash News to provide further information about Mr Drinkwater.

Ms Vardy confirmed the exchange of texts referred to the possibility of The Sun writing a story but, with regard to wanting payment, said that “wasn’t a serious comment”.

“It was a fleeting thought and one I didn’t consider any more then when I wrote it,” she said.

At the opening of the trial on Tuesday, Ms Rooney arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice in London 20 minutes before the hearing began, accompanied by her husband.

Minutes later, Ms Vardy stepped out of a car at the kerb wearing sunglasses and strode inside, running the gamut of a scrum of photographers. Neither party commented.

Wayne Rooney and Coleen Rooney depart the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand on May 10, 2022 in London, England. Picture: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images.

Their entrances were filmed for a documentary, while both women are reportedly set to give their side of the story in media deals.

Journalists packed into a courtroom to follow the case as lawyer Hugh Tomlinson gave opening remarks in support of Vardy’s case as she sues Rooney for defamation.

“There’s going to be very little legal argument in this case,” he told the judge, Karen Steyn.

Both women have carefully curated social media accounts in their names, featuring pictures of their children.

The case centres on Twitter and Instagram posts from October 5th 2019 where Rooney alleged that someone she trusted had leaked stories to The Sun tabloid.

She said that she blocked followers of her Instagram Stories except for Vardy’s account and posted fake stories that she said made their way into the tabloid.

She alleged that “just one person” viewed the stories, adding: “It’s...... Rebekah Vardy’s account”.

The post went viral with more than 300,000 likes on Twitter and 193,000 on Instagram, Vardy’s lawyer told the court.

It became known as the “Wag Wars” and the Wagatha Christie case, he said. He said his client had faced horrific online abuse calling her “rat-faced” and saying her baby should be incinerated.

“She had no choice but to bring this libel action,” he said. “She needs to be able to clear her name through this court so she can move on.” Vardy’s lawyer argued Rooney would have been aware that more than one person could have access to Vardy’s social media accounts and could not have been sure that she was the one leaking stories.

David Sherborne, the lawyer for Rooney, said in a written submission the case would centre on whether Vardy knew that her PR agent was leaking stories and condoned this or was unaware of this.

A London judge gave initial backing to Vardy in November.

The trial, due to run till next Wednesday, will see both women give evidence in court.

– With AFP

Originally published as Footballers’ wives face off at High Court in ‘Wagatha’ trial: Rebekah Vardy in tears on witness stand