It’s the trial that has gripped the nation – Vardy v Rooney.
Rebekah Vardy has brought the defamation case against Coleen Rooney following a viral social media post in October 2019, where Mrs Rooney, 36, said she had carried out a “sting operation” and accused Mrs Vardy, 40, of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.
The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney was dubbed “Wagatha Christie” when she publicly claimed it was Mrs Vardy’s account behind three fake stories appearing in The Sun after she had posted them to her personal Instagram account.
Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies leaking stories to the media and is suing her fellow footballer’s wife for libel, while Mrs Rooney is defending the claim on the basis her post was “substantially true”.
Evidence in Vardy v Rooney trial
As part of the trial, communications between Mrs Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt have been submitted as evidence and published to the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website.
The following messages surround leaking stories to various journalists working for The Sun newspaper, including Andy Halls.
Halls was the named author of stories including; “ROO-INED MOTOR Coleen Rooney narrowly avoids injury in car crash and wrecks just weeks after Wayne’s arrest for ‘public intoxication’ in Washington”, “SIP HOORAY Colleen Rooney stunned guests at Beckhams’ favourite hangout by chugging wine from a bottle to celebrate Wayne’s return” and the article entitled “COL’s BABY GIRL BID Coleen Rooney travelled to Mexico to look into 8k ‘gender selection’ treatment in desperate bid to have baby girl”.
The following are WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt the day after Mrs Rooney had published a post on Instagram featuring a damaged car with the message ‘RIP half a Honda…”.
These exchanges follow a message from Ms Watt saying, ‘Babe has Coleen unfollowed you???’ The messages continue on the same subject for the next 25 minutes and then state:
First, in relation to the Car Crash Post, WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt appear to indicate that Ms Watt was in communication with Mr Halls, the court was told.
In a subsequent message Ms Watt wrote to Mrs Vardy saying “the sun had that pic of her car in America anyway”.
Further messages submitted in evidence include these, sent in February 2019:
In April 2019, WhatsApp messages between the pair seem to indicate Ms Watt sent a message to Mr Halls at The Sun, passing on information provided by Mrs Vardy regarding Danny Drinkwater, the court was told.
The defence have also submitted messages they believe are referencing other journalists, including these.
With reference to the latter messages, Paul Lunt, partner at Brabners – the law firm representing Mrs Rooney – said: “The Defendant’s understanding is that the references to “Jane” and “Victoria” are to Jane Atkinson and Victoria Newton, both of whom are journalists at The Sun and both of whom the Defendant understands were responsible for the production of the Secret Wag column.
“The Defendant infers that Mrs Vardy’s reference to “that other thing” is a reference to the Secret Wag column and that explains The Sun’s reluctance to publish staged paparazzi photographs of Mrs Vardy whilst the Secret Wag column was running (i.e., to avoid readers suspecting that Mrs Vardy’s close relationship with The Sun meant that she was a source for the Secret Wag column).”
The communications in the published court documents finish up with these from August 2019:
It’s expected both Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Mrs Vardy, and David Sherborne, for Mrs Rooney, will give their closing speeches on Thursday.
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