The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
‘Trauma’ of Wagatha trial
Wayne Rooney has described the “traumatic” impact of the case on his wife as he gave evidence on the penultimate day of the “Wagatha Christie” libel trial.
In a viral social media post in October 2019, Coleen Rooney, 36, accused Rebekah Vardy, 40, of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.
Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies leaking stories to the media and is suing Mrs Rooney for libel. Mrs Rooney is defending the claim on the basis her post was “substantially true”.
Former England captain Mr Rooney, 36, took to the witness box at the Royal Courts of Justice to give his evidence.
Mr Rooney told the court that the period after his wife’s “reveal” post had been “very traumatic” for her and that he had watched her “struggle”.
“For me and my wife, we don’t want to be in this court,” Mr Rooney said.
“I’ve watched my wife over the last two-and-a-half years really struggle with everything, becoming a different mother, a different wife.
“It’s been very traumatic for my wife.”
Mr Rooney later described how he was asked by then England manager Roy Hodgson and then assistant manager Gary Neville to speak to Mr Vardy to ask his wife to “calm down” during the Euro 2016 tournament.
The Derby County manager said Mrs Vardy had a column in The Sun newspaper at the time.
Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Mrs Vardy, said: “Ask his wife to calm down? She wasn’t dancing on tables.”
Mr Rooney replied: “No, she wasn’t, as far as I was aware.”
Mr Rooney said he “100%” had the conversation with Mr Vardy, but did not know if Mr Vardy then spoke to his wife.
In a statement issued by Mr Vardy’s representatives outside the hearing, the Leicester City player said: “Wayne is talking nonsense... he never spoke to me about issues concerning Becky’s media work at Euro 2016.
“There was nothing to speak about, I know this because I discuss everything with Becky.”
Yesterday afternoon, the High Court heard from two experts over issues relating to the data from both women’s phones.
Mr and Mrs Vardy left proceedings early yesterday afternoon because she was “not feeling very well”, the court was told.
Ian Henderson, an expert instructed by Rebekah Vardy’s lawyers, said he found it “surprising” that there was an “absence” of WhatsApp messages between her and agent Caroline Watt after Mrs Vardy tried to export messages from her device to her solicitors.
David Sherborne, for Mrs Rooney, said to the expert: “Clearly by surprised you’re saying that that is not what you would expect to have happened?”
“That is correct,” Mr Henderson replied.
The court also heard evidence from an expert instructed by Mrs Rooney, Matthew Blackband, who claimed there was a “high probability” that “manual deletion” was the most likely explanation for loss of data in relation to messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt prior to October 15 2019 and for the period from October 15 2019 up to July 25 2020.
It is now expected that both Mr Tomlinson and Mr Sherborne will give their closing speeches tomorrow, with no hearing today.
Mrs Justice Steyn is expected to give her decision in writing at a later date.