Coleen Rooney clutched a crucifix in her hand as she left court today after condemning her wag rival Rebekah Vardy’s ‘evil’ messages.
The silver cross on a chain was just visible in devout Catholic Coleen’s hand at the end of day 5 of the sensational £3m case.
Coleen, 36, had referred to the toxic string of messages between Rebekah, 40, and her agent Caroline Watt, in which Rebekah branded her (Coleen) a ‘c***’ ‘nasty b****’, and ‘trash’.
‘She says she has zero interest in what’s going on in my life, which I believe is totally untrue,’ Coleen replied. ‘She talks about me a lot… so that was a lie,’ she added.
Mrs Rooney discussed the WhatsApp messages the court had heard between Rebekah and her agent Caroline Watt – in which Coleen featured.
She said she had never met or spoken to Ms Watt, commenting on the agent’s exchanges with Rebekah: ‘The messages that went on between them were just evil and uncalled for.’
‘There’s no need for it, I’ve never done anything to them,’ Coleen added.
She later said she had a lot of people contacting her immediately after the post, and Mr Tomlinson said people online were calling her ‘Wagatha Christie’.
She responded: ‘Yeah, which I just think is ridiculous.
I got a lot of people sending me pictures, screenshots and obviously people didn’t realise how serious what was behind it was.
‘I felt it was hard and people I trusted and people I had let into my circle were going against me.’
She added: ‘I have never spoke about this until this case, so I haven’t dwelt on it, to be honest with you I have hated every minute of it.’
‘The words they used were not true, I’ve never done anything for them to monitor me and stalk me.’
Earlier today Rooney revealed how she ramped up her ‘Wagatha Christie’ investigation when her husband Wayne was ‘misbehaving’ with a blonde barmaid during a ten-hour bender with teammates in Florida.
Coleen also admitted keeping her probe secret from the former England captain – as well as lying to Rebekah Vardy after being asked why she had unfollowed her on Instagram, as the women’s £3million libel trial continued.
London’s High Court heard the sting gathered momentum at a time when Rooney was ‘misbehaving.’ Asked if that was the case by Rebekah’s barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC, Coleen replied: ‘There’s been a few unfortunate things that have happened and they have been publicised. It’s happened quite a few times and I’ve dealt with it. We’ve dealt with it as a couple, as a family. There are a few things that have been publicised over a few years.’
Speaking of Rebekah’s response to her ‘troubles’, Coleen said: ‘I did feel that when there’s tough times going on, I felt Mrs Vardy would message more. I felt It’s when there are things in the news, she would message me and say How are you?’. I felt like it was fishing for information.’
The court heard one occasion when Rebekah went ‘fishing for information’ happened hours after her husband allegedly ‘spent time’ with the barmaid in Florida. Coleen told how Rebekah got in contact after The Sun told how she was threatening to quit the US and return to Britain after Rooney’s encounter with Vicki Rosiek when he was playing for DC United in Washington.
Making contact with Coleen at lunchtime on February 11 2019, the day after the article appeared, Rebekah wrote: ‘Hi my love! Hope you are ok! Just saw another s***ty story online! Can they not just leave you guys alone…I don’t know how you do it! It’s relentless…stay strong. Sending hugs.
Coleen replied: ‘Thanks, just a pain in a**e…it’s the kids half term so just gonna come home.’ Messaging Coleen back, Rebekah wrote: ‘It’s a joke! Annoys me someone close to you is clearly selling you out! And for what…I don’t blame you come home and be with your family’.
Over a two-month period, Coleen posted up to 50 stories on her account, up to five or six a day, that were only visible to Rebekah’s account, the court heard. Mr Tomlinson said: ‘This was really a serious and concerted operation wasn’t it Mrs Rooney.’ Coleen replied, saying: ‘It was important but I felt like it’s been made out in the public a lot more important than it actually is.’
Asked by Mr Tomlinson why she had not told Rooney about her investigation, Coleen replied: ‘One thing I don’t do is put any troubles or worries on anyone else. I don’t like to put pressure on anyone until I need to.
‘That’s what I’ve always done. I wanted to do it for myself without telling anyone. There’s trust and there’s trust. It was quite hard keeping it to myself but I had to do it if I wanted to find out who was doing it to me.’
Also today, Coleen admitted lying to Rebekah after being asked why she had unfollowed her on Instagram. During cross-examination about her actions, 36-year-old Coleen also told Mr Tomlinson at the trial today: ‘Yes I did lie, it was a cover-up for what I was investigating, I had my suspicions.’
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’.
It follows some of the most memorable parts of the trial last week, including:
- Rebekah speaking of her regret over a kiss-and-tell interview in which she revealed intimate details of a sexual encounter with singer Peter Andre, which resulted in an article headlined: ‘Peter’s hung like a small chipolata’;
- Claims over a celebrity spat breaking out after Rebekah was allegedly caught taking pictures of the contents of the late Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding’s handbag at the National Television Awards in 2018;
- Rebekah admitting she didn’t know who Davy Jones was when the court was reminded that her agent Caroline Watt had said in an earlier hearing that her phone had fallen into the North Sea
As the toxic feud between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy spilled out in public for a second week, here is a summary of the evidence as it was heard in court:
COLEEN’S TESTIMONY
Rebekah ‘got into a spat with Sarah Harding at National Television Awards after she was caught going through the Girls Aloud singer’s handbag’
Rebekah got into a heated argument with Sarah Harding at the 2018 National Television Awards after the Girls Aloud singer spotted her rifling through her handbag, the High Court heard last week.
The story – which was published in several tabloid newspapers at the time – was mentioned by Coleen Rooney in written documents she submitted to the High Court as part of the £3million Wagatha Christie libel trial.
Coleen claimed: ‘She got in a spat with former Girls Aloud group member Sarah Harding during the 2018 event because Sarah apparently caught Becky taking photographs of the contents of Sarah’s handbag when Sarah had dropped it on the floor.
Their dispute subsequently appeared in The Sun.’
Rebekah is said to have ‘come to blows’ with Sarah hours after the 2018 NTAs had been broadcast on ITV.
According to an article published at the time in The Mirror, Sarah accused Rebekah of taking ‘sneaky pictures’ of her, sparking a ‘heated’ row between the pair that caused a ‘huge scene’.