Coleen Rooney has broken her silence on her “Wagatha Christie” court battle against Rebekah Vardy, saying: “What I said in that post, I still stick by today.”
Rooney, the wife of former England star Wayne, publicly claimed in October 2019 that Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, shared three fake stories posted on her personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper.
Her online sleuthing – which involved posting false stories and limiting who could see them – drew comparisons to Agatha Christie, the famed crime novelist.
Recalling the night before, Rooney said in an interview with British Vogue: “I’d started thinking about what I was going to do. I just wanted these stories to stop.
“So I started writing what I wanted to say and then the next morning I put it out there. That was the start of something that I would never have expected.”
Vardy attempted to sue her fellow WAG for defamation.
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The Wagatha Christie trial – explained
The social media drama subsequently sparked a high-profile libel trial – and Vardy was ordered to pay Rooney’s legal costs after losing the case.
She said they were “in the same world” – so she thought Vardy would be similarly protective of family privacy.
Though Vardy “wasn’t a friend” and they “never socialised”, Rooney said she had never fallen out with another footballer’s partner before.
“I’ve never been in a legal case before so for me it was scary,” she said.
“What a horrible experience.”
“It was so difficult in that courtroom,” she continued, “especially watching her on the stand. It was quite painful. I felt uneasy.”
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Rooney said text messages revealed in court between Vardy and her former agent Caroline Watt, in which they talked about her late sister Rosie, who died from Rett syndrome in 2013 aged 14, “knocked me sick”.
She also spoke about her wardrobe for the trial.
“I’d rather spend money on a holiday wardrobe than a court wardrobe,” she said, adding that having broken her foot a few weeks earlier which was still in a medical boot by the time of the trial, she bought a couple of pairs of trousers.
Her husband carried her Fendi tote bag into court for her on the first day, and continued to do so every day after that. “I think it was a superstition thing,” she said.
The bag gained more popularity than Coleen’s medical boot
Rooney also revealed the trial impacted their relationship at the time.
“He was supportive, you know, but it took its toll. He kept saying all the way throughout it ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine’. But there were certain moments where we did have disagreements. Not over the case, but he would get annoyed with me because I was quite short-tempered. You know, I didn’t have time for him. I lost my focus.”
She has recently been filming for a new three-part fly-on-the-wall Disney+ documentary about the court case.
“I felt like everyone else has spoken about it except me,” she said. “And it’s my story to tell.”
