Rebekah Vardy Speaks Out As Judge Rules In Coleen Rooney’s Favour In ‘WAGatha Christie’ Case

Rebekah Vardy has issued a statement saying she is “devastated” after a judge ruled against her in the so-called “WAGatha Christie” libel case.

Back in October 2019, Coleen Rooney published a now-infamous post on social media claiming that fellow footballer’s wife Rebekah’s Instagram account was the source of several “false stories” about her being leaked to The Sun.

Rebekah subsequently sued Coleen for libel, in a trial which took place over a week in May of this year.

On Friday afternoon, a judge ruled in favour of Coleen, with Rebekah speaking out shortly after the verdict was made public.

″[I am] extremely sad and disappointed at the decision that the judge has reached,” she said. “It is not the result that I had expected, nor believe was just. I brought this action to vindicate my reputation and am devastated by the judge’s finding.

“The judge accepted that publication of Coleen’s post was not in the ‘public interest’ and she also rejected her claim that I was the ‘Secret Wag’. But as for the rest of her judgment, she got it wrong and this is something I cannot accept.”

Coleen Rooney leaving court earlier this year
Coleen Rooney leaving court earlier this year

Karwai Tang via Getty Images

Rebekah also called to an end to the “vile abuse” she and her family have been subjected to since things between herself and Coleen came to a head in 2019.

“Please can the people who have been abusing me and my family now stop,” she urged. “The case is over”

Meanwhile, Coleen has also spoken out to say that while she was “pleased” with the decision, she “never believed” the matter should have gone to court.

It was not a case I ever sought or wanted. I never believed it should have gone to court at such expense in times of hardship for so many people when the money could have been far better spent helping others,” she said.

“Both before and after my social media posts in October 2019, I made every effort to avoid the need for such a drawn-out and public court case. All my attempts to do so were knocked back by Mrs Vardy.”

Coleen Rooney and her footballer husband Wayne
Coleen Rooney and her footballer husband Wayne

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Coleen claimed she had “no alternative” but to defend the claim “to end the repeated leaking of my private information to The Sun”.

She added: “These leaks from my private Instagram account began in 2017. They continued for almost two years, intruding on my privacy and that of my family. Although I bear Mrs Vardy no ill-will, today’s judgment makes clear that I was right in what I said in my posts of October 2019.”

Judge Mrs Justice Steyn said in her ruling it was “likely” that Rebekah’s then-agent, Caroline Watt, “undertook the direct act” of passing the information to The Sun.

However, she added: “Nonetheless, the evidence … clearly shows, in my view, that Mrs Vardy knew of and condoned this behaviour, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt.”

She concluded: “In my judgment, the conclusions that I have reached as to the extent to which the claimant engaged in disclosing to The Sun information to which she only had access as a permitted follower of an Instagram account which she knew, and Mrs Rooney repeatedly asserted, was private, suffice to show the single meaning is substantially true.”

Mrs Justice Steyn has found that Rebekah Vardy’s evidence in the trial was “manifestly inconsistent” with other evidence on “many occasions”.

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Rebekah Vardy Loses Coleen Rooney ‘WAGatha Christie’ Libel Case As Judge Finally Makes Ruling

Rebekah Vardy has lost her high-profile libel battle against Coleen Rooney.

The two footballers’ wives have been embroiled in a very public feud since October 2019, when Coleen published a now-infamous post on Twitter claiming that Rebekah’s Instagram account was the source of several “false stories” about her being leaked to The Sun.

Rebekah has always maintained her innocence in the matter, and subsequently sued Coleen for libel in what became widely referred to as the “WAGatha Christie” case.

The trial began in May, and lasted for a week, with judge Mrs Justice Steyn sharing her ruling on Friday afternoon.

She ruled that it was “likely” that Rebekah’s then-agent, Caroline Watt, “undertook the direct act” of passing the information to The Sun

However, she added: “Nonetheless, the evidence … clearly shows, in my view, that Mrs Vardy knew of and condoned this behaviour, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt.”

Rebekah Vardy arriving in court in May
Rebekah Vardy arriving in court in May

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

She concluded: “In my judgment, the conclusions that I have reached as to the extent to which the claimant engaged in disclosing to The Sun information to which she only had access as a permitted follower of an Instagram account which she knew, and Mrs Rooney repeatedly asserted, was private, suffice to show the single meaning is substantially true.”

Mrs Justice Steyn has found that Rebekah Vardy’s evidence in the trial was “manifestly inconsistent” with other evidence on “many occasions”.

She said: “Mrs Vardy was generally unwilling to make factual concessions, however implausible her evidence.

“This inevitably affects my overall view of her credibility, although I have borne in mind that untruthful evidence may be given to mask guilt or to fortify innocence.”

The judge also spoke about the “vile abuse” Rebekah had received from members of the public in the wake of Coleen’s initial post, insisting: “Nothing of which Mrs Vardy has been accused, nor any of the findings in this judgment, provide any justification or excuse for subjecting her or her family, or any other person involved in this case, to such vitriol.”

During the seven-day trial, Coleen’s barrister David Sherborne argued that Rebekah had a “habitual and established practice” of leaking information about those she knew – through her friend and former agent Caroline Watt – to The Sun newspaper.

Of Coleen’s viral “reveal” post, her barrister added: “It is what she believed at the time… and it is what she believes even more so now that we have got to the end of the case.”

Coleen leaving court with her husband Wayne
Coleen leaving court with her husband Wayne

Karwai Tang via Getty Images

However, Rebekah’s legal representative Hugh Tomlinson QC insisted that Coleen had “failed to produce any evidence” that his client had “regularly and frequently abused her status as a trusted follower” of her private Instagram account by passing on information from it to The Sun.

He added: “Mrs Vardy’s case is and always has been that she did not leak the information nor did she authorise anyone else to leak.”

“She does not know to this day what happened,” he said. “She does not know where this information came from.”

The barrister also claimed that Rebekah had suffered “very serious harm to her reputation” as a result of Coleen’s initial post.

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Rebekah Vardy’s ‘Nasty’ Text Was Not About Coleen Rooney, Court Told

Rebekah Vardy was not referring to Coleen Rooney when she called someone a “nasty bitch” in a message to her agent, the High Court has heard.

Mrs Rooney, 35, accused Mrs Vardy, 39, in an October 2019 Twitter post of leaking stories about her private life after a months-long “sting operation”.

The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney, dubbed “Wagatha Christie”, claimed Mrs Vardy had shared fake stories she posted on her personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper.

Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Rooney for libel.

At the start of a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, the High Court heard that WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and her agent and friend Caroline Watt had been disclosed to Mrs Rooney’s legal team.

Mrs Rooney’s barrister David Sherborne claimed that “abusive” messages were sent about Mrs Rooney.

However, on Wednesday, Mrs Vardy’s barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC said a text in which she referred to someone as a “nasty bitch” was not about Mrs Rooney.

“This is not a passage about Mrs Rooney, it is a passage about someone else,” he said.

Coleen Rooney
Coleen Rooney

Anthony Devlin via Getty Images

Mr Tomlinson previously told the court that the messages referred to by Mr Sherborne, which were said to “reveal that Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt are responsible for the leaking”, were “selective”, and said parts of the exchanges which were left out had “precisely the opposite effect”.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the barrister quoted messages from Mrs Vardy to Ms Watt in which she said she was “offended” that Mrs Rooney thought she was the person who had leaked the information.

He added: “If one reads these messages in full, what one sees is that Mrs Vardy expresses shock at being accused and she is here communicating with the person that Mr Sherborne says is her co-conspirator.

“These are obviously candid personal messages, and if she was really concerned – ‘Oh, this is terrible, we have been found out’ – then it would have been completely different.”

Mrs Rooney is bringing a claim against Ms Watt for misuse of private information and is asking for it to be joined to the libel case.

Mr Sherborne told the court that if Mrs Vardy wins her claim on the basis that she was not the person who leaked the information, then Mrs Rooney will be left without “vindication” unless she is able to bring the claim against Ms Watt as part of the same case.

He also said that while Mrs Rooney’s lawyers wanted further information from the WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt, Ms Watt’s phone had fallen into the sea after a boat she was on hit a wave, shortly after the last hearing.

“(It was) most unfortunate, because it was only a short time after the court ordered that the phone should be specifically searched,” he said.

Discussing the lost phone on Wednesday, Mr Tomlinson said: “That is what happened. Mrs Vardy was not present when that happened. She (Ms Watt) was on holiday, she lost her phone.”

Mrs Vardy’s lawyers have opposed the application to add the claim against Ms Watt to the libel case.

“If the defendant had genuinely wished to bring a misuse of private information claim against Ms Watt in order to vindicate her rights this claim could have been brought 15 months ago,” Mr Tomlinson said in written arguments.

Ian Helme, for Ms Watt, also opposed the application and previously said she has given “clear and consistent” denials against the claim for misuse of private information.

The trial is due to begin in early May but is likely to be delayed.

The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn concluded on Wednesday, with judgment expected on Monday morning.

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Rebekah Vardy Denies Past ‘Run-Ins’ With Danielle Lloyd: ‘It’s Utter B******s’

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