08 February 2022

Messages in the ‘Wagatha Christie’ case revealed

08 February 2022

Messages between Rebekah Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt have been revealed as part of the High Court battle between Mrs Vardy and fellow footballer’s wife Coleen Rooney.

In an October 2019 Twitter post, Mrs Rooney accused Mrs Vardy of leaking stories about her private life after carrying out a months-long “sting operation”.

The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney, dubbed “Wagatha Christie”, claimed Mrs Vardy had shared fake stories she had posted on her personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper.

Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Rooney for libel.

On Tuesday, during the latest stage of the High Court battle, Mrs Rooney’s lawyers released several messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt.

– January 22, 2019

Mrs Rooney posted on her private Instagram account that her car had been damaged.

Members of the press wait outside the Royal Courts of Justice before a previous hearing in Rebekah Vardy’s High Court libel claim against Coleen Rooney(Kirsty O’Connor/PA) (PA Archive)

– January 23

Mrs Vardy discussed the post with Ms Watt and said “she’s a nasty bitch x” and “would love to leak those stories x.”

Ms Watt replied: “I would have tried to have done a story on Coleen but the evidence has been deleted x” before Mrs Vardy passes on details of the post.

– January 25

Ms Watt told Mrs Vardy that a journalist from The Sun was attempting to write a story on Mrs Rooney crashing her car.

She said she was “100% confident it happened but don’t know how”.

Mrs Rooney had not crashed her car; it had been damaged when another car crashed into it.

Later that day, an article appeared in The Sun about the car being damaged.

Mrs Rooney posted a screenshot of the article to her Instagram with the caption: “Someone on here is selling stories again to this scum of a paper.”

– January 27

Mrs Rooney tweeted: “It’s sad to think someone who I have accepted to follow me is betraying for either money or to keep a relationship with the press.”

Discussing the tweet with Mrs Vardy in a WhatsApp message, Ms Watt said: “Such a victim. Poor Coleen…And it wasn’t someone she trusted. It was me”

– February 6

Ms Watt and Mrs Vardy discussed that Mrs Rooney has unfollowed her, with Mrs Rooney’s lawyers arguing the exchanges show the pair were concerned about being blamed for the leaks.

Ms Watt said: “If she does try to say it or that it was me and it’s undeniably obvious what we’ll do is say I left the company I was working for in Jan and one of the girls in the office has my old laptop that had your passwords saved on it so it will have been them and now you will have to change everything x.”

Mrs Vardy replied: “Ok!”

Rebekah Vardy last year (Joe Giddens/PA) (PA Archive)

In exchanges released by Mrs Vardy’s lawyers, she told Ms Watt on the same day: “She thinks it’s me that’s been doing stories on her! Of all the people on her Instagram ffs!”

Mrs Vardy continued: “That c*** needs to get over herself! X … Someone on her Instagram regularly sells stories on her though”.

She later added: “What a joke! All I’ve ever been is nice to her though! Even when Wayne was being a c*** x.”

– April 8

Mrs Rooney posted the first of the “sting operation” posts about a so-called gender-selection treatment.

This is discussed between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt.

– August 15

An article is published by The Sun claiming Mrs Rooney travelled to Mexico to look into gender-selection treatment.

Coleen Rooney and her husband Wayne (Richard Sellers/PA) (PA Archive)

– August 16

Discussing the leaks, Mrs Vardy told Ms Watt: “Bet it’s their PR again has to be x… I really can’t see anyone being that arsed with selling stories on her.”

– September 25

Mrs Rooney makes a private Instagram post about falsely returning to television,  in the second “sting” post.

This is followed by an article in The Sun about Mrs Rooney returning to television three days later.

– October 2

Mrs Rooney posted false information about her basement being flooded on Instagram, the third “sting operation” post.

– October 8

An article in The Sun was published about Mrs Rooney’s flooded basement, quoting a “source close to the couple”.

– October 9

Mrs Rooney publishes a statement on Twitter describing the leaks, concluding “it’s………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

Mrs Vardy said “that’s war” to Ms Watt.

Ms Watt said: “You will have to say that you don’t speak to anyone about her but that recently your (Instagram) has even been following people you don’t follow and she should come to you first and asked you about it.”

She added: “Just say you have allowed a company to access it for sponsored posts and a former social media agency that you worked with too.”

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