Coleen Rooney slams Rebekah Vardy for 'evil' texts about dead sister as she breaks silence on Wagatha Christie case
17 August 2023, 12:29 | Updated: 17 August 2023, 12:40
Coleen Rooney has hit out at Rebekah Vardy for "evil" texts about her sister, who died of a rare condition in 2013.
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Vardy, 41, lost a libel claim against Rooney, 37, last July when the High Court ruled that Rooney's viral post accusing Mrs Vardy of leaking private information to the press was "substantially true".
As part of the trial, Vardy had to release WhatsApp messages exchanged with her agent, Caroline Watt.
Some of the texts related to Rooney's sister Rosie, who died aged 14 in 2013 after suffering from Rett syndrome.
The messages showed how Vardy and Watt discussed if Vardy talking Rosie to Coleen would be a good strategic move.
Rooney, who is married to former England and Manchester United star Wayne, said seeing the texts "knocked [her] sick".
"They were just another level, she told Vogue. "When I was reading them I was thinking: the evilness and the hatred that they had for someone that they don’t even know."
Rooney said she was speaking out because she wanted her side of the story to be heard.
"I felt like everyone else has spoken about it except me," she told the magazine. "And it’s my story to tell."
She told Vogue's September digital issue: "I feel like a lot of people still don’t understand what happened, from beginning to end.
The origins of 'Wagatha Christie' go all the way back to 2017, when The Sun newspaper ran a number of private stories about Rooney.
Over the next two years she claimed she shared a number of false stories on her personal Instagram account and monitored who had seen them.
When those stories appeared in the press she then said she used a process of elimination to determine who must be leaking them.
In a dramatic post she announced Vardy was the only person who could have leaked them, pinning the blame squarely on her.
Vardy, then pregnant with her fifth child, denied the allegations, saying lots of people had access to her Instagram account and so could have seen Mrs Rooney's posts.
She claimed the stress of the dispute caused her anxiety attacks, and in June 2020 it emerged she had launched libel proceedings against Rooney. So began a high-profile court battle that made headlines around the world.
On writing the now infamous tweet, Rooney told Vogue: "I like a pen and paper – a pencil and a rubber, actually, so I can rub it out. So I started writing what I wanted to say and then the next morning I put it out there.
"That was the start of something that I would never have expected."All these messages of support coming in,” she says. “Then I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this has gone extreme.’"
The week-long trial saw tears, denials and explosive revelations about the links between Vardy, her agent and tabloid journalists.
Messages between Vardy and Watt appeared to show her organising for a paparazzi photographer to get a picture of the wives and girlfriends outside a restaurant during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, as well as passing on information about Rooney's car crash.
Rebekah Vardy had more money than sense in Wagatha trial
A message also showed Watt outright admitting to Vardy that she was leaking stories to the press about Rooney.
Rooney was wearing a prosthetic boot for the court appearance.
"I’d rather spend money on a holiday wardrobe than a court wardrobe," she said.
But none of Wayne's suits fit. His wife said: "It was the day before we were going to London and I was like, ‘Where are all your suits?’ He was like ‘They don’t fit me.’ So I’m like ‘s***!’ It had to be a quick fix in Marks & Spencer."
