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Rebekah Vardy is suing Coleen Rooney as a “last resort … to vindicate her reputation,” her attorney said at a Superior Court hearing.
Ms. Rooney, 34, accused Ms. Vardy in October of last year of leaking stories about her private life to the media, and Ms. Rooney was quickly dubbed “Wagatha Christie” on social media for her apparent detective work.
Wayne and Coleen Rooney
The Leicester City forward’s wife, Jamie Vardy, has always denied any involvement and Hugh Tomlinson QC has insisted the leaks did not stem from her.
He said the October 2019 events have been “trivialized” in the media and dubbed “Wag Wars”, when what happened “continues to have an adverse impact” on Ms Vardy.
Mr. Tomlinson told Judge Warby: “The fact that both women are married to professional footballers has led to this action being trivialized in some media as ‘movement wars’, but the impact on Ms. Vardy was not trivial. “
He added: “She has been subjected to an undue and unjustified attack that has impacted her and continues to impact her.”
Ms Vardy arrives for a training session at the National Ice Center in Nottingham as she prepares to participate in Dancing On Ice 2021
Ms Rooney wrote: “For some years now, someone I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been constantly reporting to The Sun newspaper about my private posts and stories.”
She added dramatically: “I have saved and captured all the original stories that clearly show that only one person has seen them.
“It’s ……………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
Hugh Tomlinson QC called Ms. Rooney’s posts a “false and unjustified defamatory attack” that was “published and republished for millions of people.”
He said Ms. Rooney’s indictment “leaves no reasonable doubt to the reader that the defendant is accusing the plaintiff of constantly and repeatedly betraying his trust over several years.”
Tomlinson said: “It is not the language of suspicion, it is the language of discovering the truth.
Mrs. Vardy (L) is suing Mrs. Rooney
“In fact, she did not do anything wrong. The leaks that did not come from her,” he added.
Tomlinson said Ms. Rooney’s post featured “a build-up of the ‘grand reveal’ of the identity of the person responsible,” adding: “The defendant’s detective job description makes it clear that the plaintiff is said is responsible for the leak of the three specific stories mentioned. “
Ms. Rooney claimed that Ms. Vardy leaked three “fake stories” she posted on Instagram about “gender selection in Mexico,” Ms. Rooney’s return to television, and the flooding of her new home’s basement.
Ms. Rooney’s attorney, David Sherborne, who also represented Johnny Depp in his recent case, said in written communications that “we can defend it as true” that it was Ms. Vardy’s Instagram account that was responsible for the leaked posts. .
He said that the people with authorized access to Ms Vardy’s account were her agent, husband and her social media manager.
Sherborne said that people reading Ms. Rooney’s posts who consistently use the word “account” would have known that the posts could have been from “someone who uses her account.”
He added that it is “widely known” that agents have access to the Instagram accounts of celebrities.
Judge Warby must determine the “natural and ordinary” meaning of Ms. Rooney’s posts on Instagram and Twitter, before deciding whether the case should go to trial.
At the conclusion of the hearing, which lasted just over an hour, the judge said he would deliver his ruling on Friday afternoon.
Neither Mrs Rooney nor Mrs Vardy attended the Royal Courts of Justice in London, but Mrs Vardy was seen arriving for Dancing On Ice Rehearsals in Nottingham.
