WAGS at War - Rooney v Vardy case rumbles on

A high-profile spat between footballers’ wives Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney has returned to court. Ms Vardy is suing Ms Rooney for libel over Ms Rooney’s allegation that Ms Vardy leaked stories from Ms Rooney’s private Instagram to The Sun newspaper.

The story began in October 2019 when Rooney tweeted to her followers that Vardy had, in exchange for payment, shared information from Rooney’s private Instagram account.

In a series of tweets, Rooney shared the sequence of events with her followers on Twitter. She explained that, becoming suspicious posts from her private account were being passed on to the tabloid as story-fodder, she restricted access to her Instagram in order to narrow down the pool of suspects.

Eventually: “I blocked everyone from viewing my Instagram stories except ONE account,” Rooney explained.

In a move that earned the saga the title of ‘the WAGatha Christie case’, she then began baiting her feed with fake stories, one about being in negotiations to appear on the BBC’s  Strictly Come Dancing.

“Over the past five months I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into The Sun newspaper,” she added: “And, you know what, they did!”. Damning stuff.

Vardy, heavily pregnant and holidaying in Dubai, was mortified, and responded with a strong denial, pointing out she needed neither the money nor the exposure.

The public exchange caught the attention of social media, and hordes took to Twitter to suggest Rooney should be appointed by the government to expose leaks from Downing Street.

Vardy, asked whether she had ever quarrelled with Rooney, uttered the immortal line: “That would be like arguing with a pigeon. You can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to s*** in your hair.”

When the Covid pandemic hit, the WAGatha Christie saga faded momentarily into the background – but three months later it was back. On 12 June 2020 Vardy filed an application to sue Rooney for libel, arguing through her lawyers that the affair had caused her mental and physical distress, and that the family could no longer attend Leicester games, because of abuse from her rival’s fans.

Rooney’s lawyers riposted: “Mrs Vardy’s decision to issue court proceedings does at least mean that Coleen’s evidence can be made public when the time is right.”

On 20 November, Justice Warby ruled in favour of  Vardy, allowing the case to continue. It was found that Rooney’s tweet had “clearly identified” Vardy as being “guilty of the serious and consistent breach of trust that she alleges”. Warby J also ordered  Rooney to pay £23,000 in legal costs.

The two were given until 8 February 2021 to make an attempt to mediate their case. Sadly, they failed to find a solution, and declined to settle out of court.

A promising side-plot was stopped in its tracks by Justice Steyn in July, who threw out arguments by Rooney concerning Vardy’s (alleged) closeness to The Sun, and (alleged) authorship of its brief ‘Secret Wag’ column, dismissing the matter as “irrelevant and peripheral.”

Further accusations fell wide of the mark, but the saga was back in the High Court for a two-day hearing in February , where WhatsApp messages between Vardy and her agent, Caroline Watt were produced. In these, Vardy allegedly referred to Rooney as a “nasty b***” and “a c***” and, referring to posts on Rooney’s Instagram, remarked that she “…would love to leak those stories. x”

A hitch occurred when it transpired Ms Watts’ phone, shortly after the court ordered it should be searched, fell into the North Sea. Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne said this was “most unfortunate,” adding: “From the outset, Mrs Vardy has always claimed that neither she nor Ms Watt were involved in the leaking of private information from Mrs Rooney’s Instagram account. The recent disclosure has shown that this is emphatically not the case.”

Underlying the WAGatha Christie saga are some very serious issues: reputation, privacy, libel and defamation.

Contact Samuels without delay for bespoke, flexible and dynamic legal advice on defamation of character, libel, slander, breach of privacy, and malicious falsehood.

Article credit: Lalla Merlin