It’s Vardy 2, Wagatha 0!
Rebekah wins second round of battle with Coleen after judge rejects latest tactic
COLEEN Rooney yesterday lost the latest round of her ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel battle with fellow footballer’s wife Rebekah Vardy.
The 35-year-old failed to get permission to sue Mrs Vardy’s publicity agent Caroline Watt as part of her claim that the two women leaked information from her private Instagram account to a newspaper.
Mrs Rooney, who is married to the former England and Manchester United footballer Wayne, was ordered to pay £65,000 towards Mrs Watt’s legal costs for the failed application to the High Court in London.
She had argued that a series of WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Mrs Watt showed that the pair had monitored her private Instagram account and leaked information to journalists.
The mother-of-four was dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’ after she put false information on social media in an attempt to unmask who was responsible, and then accused her former friend Mrs Vardy. The 39-year-old, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denied the claim and is now suing Mrs Rooney for libel.
During a two-day hearing at the High Court last week, Mrs Rooney asked to sue Mrs Watt for misuse of private information and data protection breaches as part of the libel case.
But in a ruling yesterday, the judge refused her request, saying it was brought too late and would delay the main libel case by up to a year, which would be unfair to Mrs Vardy.
The judge added: ‘The effect of granting the application would be to delay the determination of [Mrs Vardy’s] libel claim by six to 12 months.
‘That would not be fair to [Mrs Vardy] who seeks to vindicate her reputation and would suffer the prejudice of the litigation being prolonged.’
Yesterday’s ruling is the second major setback in the case for Mrs Rooney. The first came in November 2020 when a judge ruled that she had clearly suggested, in an online post, that Mrs Vardy had leaked stories. This ruling paved the way for the libel action.
In the latest hearing, the court was presented with WhatsApp messages between Mrs Watt and Mrs Vardy, in which they appeared to discuss Mrs Rooney’s posts on social media. In one message on her private Instagram account, Mrs Rooney said she felt ‘sad’ that someone she had allowed to access it had betrayed her.
Mrs Watt then sent a message with a laughing face emoji to Mrs Vardy, saying: ‘Such a victim. Poor Coleen... And it wasn’t someone she trusted. It was me.’
Mrs Justice Steyn, who is expected to hear the full libel case later this year, ordered Mrs Rooney to pay £65,000 of Mrs Watt’s £70,000 legal costs for last week’s hearing.
Mrs Rooney’s own legal bill for the hearing already stood at £163,926 and court sources have said that the overall costs for the case so far have topped £1.5million.
Mrs Rooney is expected to argue that she was right when she accused Mrs Vardy of leaking information. The judge allowed her to amend her case to include an allegation that Mrs Vardy provided information about another unnamed footballer to The Sun, via Mrs Watt.
She also ordered that further searches be carried out on WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Mrs Watt before the full libel trial. Mrs Vardy had opposed the disclosure application and was ordered to pay a fifth of Mrs Rooney’s legal bills for last week’s hearing.
Speaking after yesterday’s ruling, Mrs Rooney’s spokesman said Mrs Watt would be called as a witness in the case, which would allow her to be cross-examined.
The case continues.