Jamie Vardy joins wife Rebekah Vardy at ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial as Wayne Rooney gives evidence
Jamie Vardy turns up to support wife Rebekah for FIRST time on day six of her £3M Wagatha Christie war with Coleen Rooney… as ex-England teammate Wayne is to take stand after trial heard of his extramarital ‘misbehaviour’
Coleen Rooney has described messages between Rebekah Vardy and her agent about her as ‘just evil’Coleen accused Rebekah of leaking ‘false stories’ about her private life after months-long ‘sting operation’Rebekah denies the allegations and has sued Coleen over the ‘untrue and unjustified defamatory attack’* MailOnline’s liveblog on the ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial can be followed throughout today by clicking HERE *
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Jamie Vardy today made his first appearance at the ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial as he joined his wife Rebekah Vardy to hear former England teammate Wayne Rooney give evidence in the £3million libel case against Coleen Rooney.
Rooney, 36, is expected to speak at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today, one day after his wife Coleen also gave evidence and described messages between Rebekah and her agent about her as ‘just evil’.
Coleen, also 36, has accused Rebekah, 40, of leaking ‘false stories’ about her private life in October 2019 after she said she carried out a months-long ‘sting operation’ – and the bombshell trial is now in its final few days.
Rebekah denies the allegations and has sued the fellow footballer’s wife over the ‘untrue and unjustified defamatory attack’, with the last of the defence witnesses – including Rooney – set to give evidence today.
In the first five days of the trial, which has seen a tearful Rebekah being subject to a gruelling cross-examination, Leicester City striker Vardy’s absence was noted by many observers. In contrast, Coleen’s husband Rooney has been ever present, sitting at the front of the court to accompany his wife as she too gave evidence.
Shortly before proceedings began this morning, Vardy took his seat on the left hand side of the court alongside his wife, while the Rooneys arrived a few minutes later, with neither man acknowledging the other.
Coleen finished her evidence yesterday, having first walked into the witness box of Court 13 on Friday. Yesterday, she responded to questions about Rooney’s ‘misbehaving’ and arrest for drink drinking.
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen Rooney arrives with her husband Wayne Rooney at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Wayne Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Wayne Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Wayne Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Rebekah, referred to an article which told of Rooney’s arrest for drink driving, when he was caught with another woman in the car.
The barrister said it was ‘another apparent crisis’ in their relationship and that Rooney had been ‘misbehaving’.
Coleen replied: ‘Yes there has been a few, it’s unfortunate that things have happened in my life and they get publicised, and it has happened quite a few times and I have dealt with it – we have dealt with it as a couple and as a family.’
Mr Tomlinson referred to a ‘supportive’ message sent around that time from Rebekah to Coleen, saying there was ‘nothing suspicious’ about it.
Coleen said: ‘I already had suspicions … so as time went on things just seemed to add up. When there were tough times going on, I did feel like Mrs Vardy would message me.’
She added: ‘Obviously, having the suspicions that I had, I felt like it was a bit of fishing for information.’
Coleen was also asked about the aftermath of her ‘reveal’ post and Rebekah’s response.
Mr Tomlinson said: ‘She makes it clear to you that it wasn’t her, doesn’t she?’
‘She says she has zero interest in what’s going on in my life, which I believe is totally untrue,’ Coleen replied. ‘She talks about me a lot… so that was a lie,’ she added.
Coleen then discussed WhatsApp messages the court had heard between Rebekah and her agent Caroline Watt – in which Coleen featured.
She said she had never met or spoken to Ms Watt, commenting on the agent’s exchanges with Rebekah: ‘The messages that went on between them were just evil and uncalled for.’
‘There’s no need for it, I’ve never done anything to them,’ Coleen added.
She later said she had a lot of people contacting her immediately after the post, and Mr Tomlinson said people online were calling her ‘Wagatha Christie’.
She responded: ‘Yeah, which I just think is ridiculous. I got a lot of people sending me pictures, screenshots and obviously people didn’t realise how serious what was behind it was.
‘I felt it was hard and people I trusted and people I had let into my circle were going against me.’
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Wayne Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen Rooney arrives with her husband Wayne Rooney at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Wayne Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen Rooney arrives with her husband Wayne Rooney at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Rebekah Vardy arrives with her husband Jamie Vardy at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Wayne Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Wayne Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Wayne Rooney talks to Jamie Vardy of England during a match at Wembley Stadium in London on June 2, 2016
She added: ‘I have never spoke about this until this case, so I haven’t dwelt on it, to be honest with you I have hated every minute of it.’
Yesterday’s hearing also featured evidence from Coleen’s former PR representative Rachel Monk, about her interactions with The Sun newspaper in relation to stories about the footballer’s wife.
On one occasion, according to her witness statement, Ms Monk told a Sun journalist that a story about her client going to a gender selection clinic in Mexico was ‘bonkers’.
Harpreet Robertson, a former family liaison officer at the Football Association, told the court that two guests of Rebekah – who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy – allegedly being ‘rude and abusive’ to her at a Euros 2016 match was the ‘worst moment’ she had experienced at a game.
She claimed in her witness statement that Rebekah’s evidence about why she sat behind Coleen at the England versus Wales match was ‘simply untrue’.
In a brief appearance in the witness box, Coleen’s brother Joe McLoughlin told the court he was ‘shocked’ when he read his sister’s October 2019 social media post revealing her so-called ‘sting operation’ after helping her to create a ‘graphic’ of its text shortly before it was sent.
‘It was a shock to me,’ he said in a brief appearance in the witness box.
Mr McLoughlin explained he helped run his sister’s public social media accounts as he worked at Triple S Group – the sports management company supporting Wayne Rooney.
Asked if he had previously discussed with his sister how she might find out who was leaking her information, he replied: ‘No, never’.
Also yesterday, Coleen was asked about the abuse Rebekah received on social media after the reveal post. Coleen said: ‘I know and it is disgusting. I would never ever wish that upon anyone.
‘I was getting trolled as well but obviously Mrs Vardy’s was disgusting, the things they were saying … the world we live in today and the trolling is terrible.’
She told the court that she did not say anything further about her investigation, either to Rebekah or publicly, because of a legal letter she had received from Rebekah’s lawyers.
She said: ‘I was quite threatened by it. I just held off and tried to take direction from what the solicitors advised me.’
Earlier yesterday, Coleen said she wanted a ‘totally untrue’ story about a so-called gender selection procedure to be published as ‘evidence’ for her sting operation to discover the source of leaked stories.
One of the Instagram stories used in the ‘sting’ was posted on April 8 2019, with Coleen claiming she was travelling to Mexico to look into a procedure to determine a baby’s sex.
‘Let’s go and see what this gender selection is all about,’ Coleen posted, accompanied with a number of heart emojis and what appeared to be a grimacing face emoji.
Around four months later, The Sun published a story online on August 15 2019 with the headline ‘Col’s baby girl bid’, marked as an exclusive, detailing Coleen’s alleged ‘desperate bid to have a baby girl’.
Asked about this post by Mr Tomlinson, Coleen said: ‘I wanted the story to run so I had evidence.’
Coleen also told the High Court she ‘had suspicions’ that Rebekah’s Instagram account was responsible for leaking information to journalists when she unfollowed her on the social media site.
She said the pair were ‘not good friends’ and that if someone had unfollowed her she would ‘probably just forget about it and not message’ the person, adding: ‘I wouldn’t have been that bothered really.’
She said: ‘I felt it was suspicious. Obviously, I had suspicions in other ways, so this just added to the suspicions that I had.’
A court artist’s sketch of Coleen Rooney at the witness stand at the High Court yesterday as Mrs Justice Steyn listens
Another court artist’s sketch of Coleen Rooney at the Royal Courts of Justice in London yesterday as she gives evidence
A third artist’s sketch of Coleen Rooney, watched by Rebekah Vardy, being spoken to by barrister David Sherborne yesterday
The trial comes after a widely-shared social media post in October 2019, in which Coleen Rooney said she had carried out a ‘sting operation’ and accused 40-year-old Rebekah Vardy of leaking ‘false stories’ about her private life to the press
Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy during his side’s Premier League match against Watford at Vicarage Road on Sunday
Coleen is defending the libel claim brought by Rebekah on the basis of truth and public interest.
The libel battle comes after Coleen publicly claimed that an account behind three fake stories in The Sun that she had posted on her personal Instagram account was Rebekah’s.
The fake stories Coleen planted on her Instagram during the sting operation featured her travelling to Mexico for a ‘gender selection’ procedure, her planning to return to TV, and the basement flooding at her home.
In the post on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, she wrote: ‘I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s ………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.’
