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Coleen Rooney has admitted lying to Rebekah Vardy after being asked why she had unfollowed her on Instagram, as the bombshell £3million ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel trial continued today.
‘Yes I did lie, it was a cover-up for what I was investigating, I had my suspicions,’ Coleen, 36, told Rebekah’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC under cross-examination at the High Court in London this morning.
The trial comes after a widely-shared social media post in October 2019, in which Coleen said she had carried out a ‘sting operation’ and accused 40-year-old Rebekah of leaking ‘false stories’ about her private life to the press.
Rebekah, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies leaking stories to the media and is suing her fellow footballer’s wife for libel, while Coleen is defending the claim on the basis her post was ‘substantially true’.
The court heard today that Coleen unfollowed Rebekah in early 2019 and received a message a month later asking her if Rebekah had ‘done something to offend you.’ The court heard that on March 3 that year, Rebekah sent Coleen a note saying: ‘I saw you had unfollowed me and I wasn’t following you anymore on Instagram…just wanted to ask if I had done something or offended you in anyway? Literally only noticed the other day’.
Coleen admitted she ‘told her a fib’ in her reply, saying she ‘didn’t even know’ – adding that her children used her phone often and she would check to see what happened. In fact, the court was told that she had deliberately unfollowed her because of concerns that stories were being leaked from her account.
The message only increased Coleen’s suspicions, she said. ‘If it was me, I would have just forgotten about it,’ she added. Coleen also said that if it had happened to her, then she ‘wouldn’t be that bothered really’.
When Rebekah asked why, Coleen told her she hadn’t realised and thought it might have been her children playing with her phone. The message read: ‘Oh, I didn’t even know, the kids have my phone all the time, they’ve probably done it, let me check.’
Coleen admitted: ‘I did tell her a fib.’ Mr Tomlinson asked: ‘Why weren’t you simply honest with her?’ She said: ‘Mrs Vardy never came to me and said it was me, despite the fact I’d given warnings on Instagram, so why should I be honest?’
Coleen said she did not believe Rebekah would ‘tell the truth anyway, even if I confronted her’. Asked whether the best thing to do would have been to warn her this was going on, she asserted that Rebekah had told a ‘lot of lies’.
Crucially, she added that not only did she think it was Rebekah’s account that was leaking stories to The Sun, but also Rebekah herself was aware. ‘I believe she knew all along’, she said.
Coleen continued giving evidence today, having said last Friday that she was glad she ‘put an end’ to Rebekah allegedly leaking other people’s information after her bid to catch the person ‘betraying’ her ‘red-handed’.
Last week Coleen told the trial how her marriage almost fell apart after Rooney was caught drink-driving with a party girl in 2017. Coleen said that in the aftermath of the incident involving former office worker Laura Simpson, she and their children stayed with her parents and she ‘didn’t know how my marriage was going to work out’.
Coleen Rooney (left) and Rebekah Vardy (right) arrive at the High Court today to continue the ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel trial
Coleen and Wayne Rooney arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today as the high-profile libel battle continues
Coleen and Wayne Rooney arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today as the high-profile libel battle continues
Wayne Rooney (left) and Coleen Rooney (right) arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Coleen and Wayne Rooney are surrounded by photographers as they arrive at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today
Wayne Rooney and Coleen Rooney arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning as the trial continues
Coleen and Wayne Rooney arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today as the high-profile libel battle continues
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today to continue the ‘Wagatha Christie libel trial
Wayne Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today with his wife Coleen Rooney
This morning, Coleen was accompanied by her husband Wayne Rooney, and she wore a grey jacket and trousers with a black top. The couple stepped out of a silver Mercedes and were met by a crowd of photographers.
Rebekah arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice in a black Mercedes moments later. Wearing a yellow jacket and skirt, she walked past the waiting crowd of photographers and journalists and went into the building.
Coleen began giving evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday afternoon and is expected to continue speaking up until this afternoon – with her husband Wayne Rooney due to step into the witness box tomorrow.
Today, Coleen was asked about her publicist Rachel Monk, whom she described as somebody who oversees her media projects, and has ‘worked on and off with me for years now’. She said approaches from the media about stories were typically sent to Monk PR, and later Mark Whittle – both of whom are expected to give evidence later today.
A message was read out from Ms Monk, who was alerting Coleen to a story being pursued by the Sun regarding Coleen finding a babysitter. Coleen was asked if she believed Rebekah was still leaking stories, despite being unfollowed by Coleen shortly beforehand. She said she didn’t know what Rebekah was thinking at the time, but thinks she might have believed she had ‘got away with it’.
‘We were living in America at the time’ of the post, she said, and babysitters wasn’t something she often spoke about. The court heard the request from the Sun came ten days after a private Instagram post about the subject.
Rebekah Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today as the high-profile libel battle continues
Rebekah Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today as the high-profile libel battle continues
Rebekah Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning for the trial to continue
Rebekah Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today as the high-profile libel battle continues
Rebekah Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today as the high-profile libel battle continues
Rebekah Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning for the trial to continue
Rebekah Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London today to continue the ‘Wagatha Christie libel trial
Rebekah Vardy arrives at the High Court this morning for day five of the libel trial against Coleen Rooney
Last Friday, Coleen began giving evidence in Court 13. Asked by Rebekah’s barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC what she set out to achieve with the widely shared post, Coleen replied: ‘I wasn’t achieving anything, what I wanted was to stop the person who was leaking my private information to The Sun.’
Coleen added that she had given out warnings ‘many times’, but ‘it didn’t stop’.
‘This was my last resort,’ she continued. In a witness statement, she outlined her ‘growing sense of suspicion’ that Rebekah’s account might be linked to alleged leaks.
She explained she made two warning posts on social media and temporarily removed Rebekah from her account ‘but nothing had worked’.
Coleen added that she ‘wanted to catch the account responsible ‘red-handed’ as it were and so I came up with a plan’, before outlining her so-called ‘sting operation’ of positing fake stories and limiting access to them to Rebekah’s Instagram account.
She claimed that her concerns ‘went beyond my own posts’, writing: ‘I knew that I could not be the only one whose trust was being abused by the culprit and I now know from having seen the WhatsApp exchanges between Becky and Caroline that Becky was leaking information about a whole range of other people too.
‘I thought whoever was doing this was probably betraying other people in this way too.’
She added: ‘There have been no leaks of posts from my account since. No doubt similar behaviour by Becky was also a real worry for many others too. I am glad I have put an end to it.’
In court on Friday, Mr Tomlinson suggested Coleen had ‘no evidence’ to establish that Rebekah leaked information from her personal Instagram account.
‘I believe that Mrs Vardy knew that this was happening, whether it was Mrs Vardy herself or it was someone she’s given permission to,’ Coleen said.
Mr Tomlinson replied that ‘you might believe that Derby County will win the premiership’, adding: ‘It’s not evidence that they are going to.’
‘No it’s not,’ she replied.
Coleen’s husband, former England footballer Wayne Rooney, is manager of the Derby County football team and was sat metres away from his wife during the hearing.
Before Coleen began her evidence on Friday afternoon, Rebekah entered the witness box for the final day of her evidence, telling the court she felt ‘bullied and manipulated’ while facing cross examination.
Rebekah, who became emotional during her evidence, told the court that she ‘wanted to clear her name’ and had brought the legal action for her children.
Earlier in the trial, TV personality Rebekah was asked about a 2004 interview in the defunct tabloid about a sexual encounter she said she had with singer Peter Andre.
Coleen’s barrister David Sherborne showed what appeared to be an A3 printout of the article to Rebekah in the witness box, before reading the headline: ‘Peter’s hung like a small chipolata, shaved, slobbery, lasts five minutes.’
However, Rebekah previously said that she was ‘forced into a situation by my ex-husband’ to do the interview.
On Friday, Rebekah was asked questions by her barrister, Hugh Tomlinson QC, about the article.
Mr Tomlinson asked: ‘Looking back now all these years, nearly 20 years since, can you remember whether the things presented in the article were things you actually said?’
A court artist’s sketch of Coleen Rooney, watched by her husband Wayne, as she gives evidence at court in London last Friday
A court artist’s sketch of Coleen Rooney’s barrister David Sherborne (centre back) questioning Rebekah Vardy (left) as she gives evidence at the Royal Courts Of Justice last Thursday as Coleen (right) and Wayne (second right) Rooney watch
Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy during his side’s Premier League match against Watford at Vicarage Road yesterday
Rebekah replied: ‘There’s a lot of things in there that did not come out of my mouth that were misrepresented in the circumstances around that article I’m deeply sorry for. It’s shameful reading that, and one of my biggest regrets.’
Coleen is defending the libel claim brought by Rebekah on the basis of truth and public interest.
The libel battle comes after Coleen publicly claimed that an account behind three fake stories in The Sun that she had posted on her personal Instagram account was Rebekah’s.
The fake stories Coleen planted on her Instagram during the sting operation featured her travelling to Mexico for a ‘gender selection’ procedure, her planning to return to TV, and the basement flooding at her home.
In the post on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, she wrote: ‘I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. ‘It’s ………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.’
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