Rebekah Vardy denies she leaked stories about Coleen Rooney as libel case begins
Rebekah Vardy denied leaking stories about Coleen Rooney to the press as she started her evidence in their High Court libel battle.
In a viral social media post in October 2019, Mrs Rooney, 36, said she had carried out a “sting operation” and accused Mrs Vardy, 40, of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.
The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney was dubbed "Wagatha Christie" when she publicly claimed an account behind three fake stories she had posted on her personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper was Mrs Vardy's.
Mrs Vardy, married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies leaking stories to the media and is suing her fellow footballer's wife for libel, while Mrs Rooney is defending the claim on the basis her post was "substantially true".
In her written evidence, Mrs Vardy said she believed Mrs Rooney had made her a “scapegoat” for previous leaked stories about her marriage to Mr Rooney. "I believe that they have, in part, done this as a way of trying to change the narrative in the press about Coleen being a doormat following her husband's drink driving charge and the multiple allegations of cheating," she wrote.
Going into the witness box shortly before 4pm yesterday, Mrs Vardy repeatedly denied leaking information to newspapers, telling the court: "I have been called a leaker and it's not nice."
Shortly after questioning whether Mrs Vardy respected people's privacy, Mrs Rooney's barrister David Sherborne then asked Mrs Vardy about an interview she gave her about a sexual encounter with singer Peter Andre.
Mr Sherborne showed what appeared to be a A3 printout of the article to Mrs Vardy in the witness box before reading the headline: "Peter's hung like a small chipolata, shaved, slobbery, lasts five minutes." However, Mrs Vardy said that she was "forced into a situation by my ex-husband" to do the interview. Mr Sherborne later asked: “Did you feel particularly strongly about the size of his manhood that it should be made public?”
Mrs Vardy replied: "It was something that I was forced to say.”during the hearing Mrs Vardy, wearing a smart navy dress, sat metres away from Mrs Rooney. The pair sat in the front row of the seats in the courtroom with Mrs Rooney, accompanied by her husband, dressed in a black suit with a moon boot on her left foot.
Earlier yesterday, Mrs Vardy's barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC said she had to bring the libel claim to “vindicate her reputation”. He said in written submissions: "The allegation in the post was and remains false: Mrs Vardy had not leaked information about Mrs Rooney or her friends and family to The Sun newspaper from her private Instagram account.
"Mrs Rooney did not have the 'irrefutable' evidence that she claimed to have had: her socalled 'careful investigation' was nothing of the sort. If anyone had been leaking information from Mrs Rooney's private Instagram this was not done with Mrs Vardy's knowledge or approval."
The barrister also said that Mrs Rooney's alleged investigation into the leaks "was in fact a pre-determined blinkered operation with the aim of 'outing' Mrs Vardy".