‘Did I argue with Coleen? That would be like arguing with a pigeon’
REBEKAH VARDY HITS BACK:
‘I said to Coleen: “What have you done? The whole world hates me“’
THE PHONE call, made very soon after Coleen Rooney’s bombshell accusations, was something Rebekah Vardy will never forget.
‘I said to her: “Coleen, what on earth have you done?” ’ Becky says.
‘It was not an easy phone call. She said to me: “I’m not pointing the finger” and I said: “You have just annihilated me in public and hung me out to dry. The whole world hates me!”
‘I thought she was my friend but she completely annihilated me. She said: “You know, I always really liked you, which makes it harder.” ’
Did the two women argue, I ask? Becky is careful not to explicitly denounce Coleen, but says: ‘That would be like arguing with a pigeon. You can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to s*** in your hair.’
That is merely the latest colourful phrase in a dispute that has gripped Britain and Ireland, both countries grateful for a delicious celebrity ding-dong to distract us in these Brexit-weary times.
It is soap opera-style saga that has made headlines around the world and even been debated on BBC R4’s lofty Today programme. Now, little more than 24 hours after the eruption of ‘WAGs at war’, Becky — wife of footballer Jamie Vardy — has broken her silence to speak exclusively to the Mail to put forward her side of the story.
‘If I don’t talk, then everyone will still think I did it, and the abuse will go on,’ she says.
For anyone who’s been living under a stone this week, Becky, 37, was sensationally accused by Coleen Rooney, wife of footballer Wayne, of leaking stories from her private Instagram account and selling them to a redtop newspaper.
Coleen, 33, claimed that someone she had thought was a friend had been selling stories about her ‘for years’ and so she had turned detective and placed three false stories on her account to test whether they would appear in the media.
All three were duly published in the Sun, and on Wednesday Coleen announced that the source was ‘Rebekah Vardy’s account’.
It’s fair to say that Becky, who is seven months pregnant and wasn’t given any warning that this explosive story was about to come out, has been left devastated — not only by the hurtful accusation but by the torrent of abuse that has followed.
Indeed, so vile has the internet trolling been that it is unprintable in a family newspaper.
‘Over 24 hours, this has escalated and escalated,’ she says. ‘I wasn’t going to say anything but it has gone so extreme. I have been told that I should die, that my children should die, my unborn child should die. It would be unacceptable for anyone.
‘I am tough, but this has made me cry. It is hard to explain how horrible it has been.’
Becky certainly sounds rattled, at one point breaking off from our conversation to weep.
She says that she isn’t the one to blame and has hired an expert in forensic cyber security to try to find out who might have had access to her Instagram account. Can anyone, though, really believe that she didn’t do it? Becky says that she hopes they can.
Her explanation, in a nutshell, is that any one of a dozen people could have snooped on Coleen’s private Instagram posts because they had Becky’s Instagram log-in and password.
‘Over the last few years, quite a few people have had access to my Instagram account, including a PR agency and an advertising agency.
‘And, yes, I have given my password out. It is considered a normal thing to do and I never thought very hard about it.
‘I certainly never thought that something like this could happen, that someone would poach stories about another person via their Instagram,’ she said. She is also, it turns out, not completely convinced that the leak does come from her account. Coleen has yet to respond to requests for evidence of this from Becky’s legal team. ‘We’ve asked for the proof, but it’s not been forthcoming,’ says Becky.
It’s a long way from the camaraderie of the Euro Football Championships in 2016 when their friendship was forged.
‘I have always been very supportive of her,’ says Becky. ‘But as much as I sympathise with Coleen and the situation in which she found herself, I don’t understand why she couldn’t call me before posting it on social media and basically completely finishing my reputation and bringing all of this raining down on me.