Rebekah Vardy, the wife of Leicester City striker, Jamie Vardy has lost the ‘Wagatha Christie’ High Court libel case she brought against, Coleen Rooney, the wife of Wayne Rooney.
Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney used to be best of friends especially when their husbands were still active members of the Three Lions of England.
They spent most of their time together during the 2016 European Championship and also spent most of their time together during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, which was the last World Cup appearance for their husbands before they retired from international football.
Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney were so closed that the 40-year-old wife of the Leicester City legend was a member of a highly exclusive private Instagram page that Coleen Rooney used to own. Rebekah’s membership on that page led to the collapse of her friendship with Coleen.
The Wagatha Christie trial: What happened between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney?
During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a photojournalist secretly took pictures of the wives of the Three Lions of England players. The photographer captured almost every outing of the women in Russia until the end of the tournament without the knowledge of the women, including Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney.
Afterward, all the pictures found their way into the pages of a United Kingdom publication, The Sun Newspaper in 2019
Amid that, some personal information Coleen Rooney shared on her private Instagram page found its way into the Sun Newspaper including some “false stories” about Coleen that same year.
Some of the “false stories” included Coleen traveling to Mexico for a baby “gender selection” procedure, planning a return to TV, and the basement flooding at her home.
When the news broke, Coleen Rooney who used to be a TV presenter investigated to find out who leaked the story to The Sun and she confirmed that it was Rebekah Vardy. Hence, she publicly accused Rebekah of leaking her private information and false stories about her which earned Coleen the nickname Wagatha Christie.
The Wagatha Christie trial
After Rebekah Vardy was subjected to a series of social media trolls for allegedly leaking information about her then friend, Coleen Rooney, 36, Rebekah decided to drag Coleen before the High Court in London.
Rebekah who denied all Coleen’s allegations said she almost passed out when she heard the accusations because she was heavily pregnant during that period. Hence, she sued Rooney’s wife for libel.
Both Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy were at the court to support their wives in a case that was known as the Wagatha Christie trial.
The trial became so heated that Rooney had to stand in the witness box to testify against Vardy’s wife.
While giving his testimony, Rooney told the court that he was asked during Euro 2016 to have a word with Jamie Vardy over his wife’s activities around England’s team during the tournament.
After a series of back and forths, the Judge that presided over the trial, Judge Justice Steyn accepted that Rooney’s revelation was “a matter of public interest” due to “the undesirable practice of information about celebrities’ private lives being disclosed to the press by trusted individuals”. Hence, the judge ruled in Coleen Rooney’s favor.
🔴 Rebekah Vardy has lost her Wagatha Christie libel trial against Coleen Rooney.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 29, 2022
Sky's Bethany Minelle explains what happened in the 'modern-day whodunnit' case 👇https://t.co/pW8TkGiSTN pic.twitter.com/epcjXhUp2O
