Vardy ‘appears to accept’ her aide leaked Rooney stories
REBEKAH VARDY has seemingly accepted that her aide leaked stories about Coleen Rooney, Mrs Rooney’s barrister has claimed at the High Court.
Mrs Rooney accused Mrs Vardy of leaking “false stories” about her private life in October 2019 after carrying out a months-long “sting operation”.
The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney was nicknamed “Wagatha Christie” when she claimed Mrs Vardy leaked fake stories she had posted on a private Instagram account.
Mrs Vardy, the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Rooney for libel.
Mrs Rooney’s lawyers previously said Mrs Vardy had leaked information to The Sun, either directly or through her friend and agent Caroline Watt “acting on her instruction or with her knowing approval”.
Yesterday, David Sherborne, representing Mrs Rooney, claimed Mrs Vardy believes Ms Watt may have been the source of the stories, after a witness statement given on Wednesday.
In written submissions, he said Mrs Vardy’s new statement “suggests Ms Watt was the source of the leak but claims that [Mrs Vardy] ‘did not authorise or condone her’.”
The barrister said: “The collapse of Mrs Vardy’s case over the last day has been remarkable.
“In an abrupt change of position to her pleaded case since the outset, Mrs Vardy appears now to accept Mrs Rooney’s case: that Caroline Watt, Mrs Vardy’s close friend and PR, was the conduit by which stories from the defendant’s private Instagram account were leaked to The Sun through her access via Rebekah Vardy’s account.
“It has become undeniably obvious that Ms Watt is the source and Mrs Vardy, true to form, says ‘it wasn’t me, I didn’t realise and I didn’t know anything about what was going on’.”
However, Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Mrs Vardy, said her new witness statement did not contain “any change whatever in the pleaded case”.
He later said: “We simply don’t know what the true position is in relation to Ms Watt... She’s not communicating with anybody on our side”.
Ms Watt was referred to at an earlier hearing after the High Court in London heard Whatsapp messages between her and Mrs Vardy had been disclosed.
Ms Watt had been expected to give evidence at the trial, but the High Court was told she was “not fit” to give oral evidence at a hearing earlier this month.
The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn was due to finish yesterday afternoon, with a judgment to come at a later date.