On day one of the ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial between and it was revealed the court will hear evidence from Wayne Rooney.
The anticipated legal showdown – after Mrs Vardy sued Mrs Rooney for libel following Mrs Rooney’s accusation her fellow WAG had L***ed ‘false stories’ to the media, which Mrs Vardy denies – began today at the Royal Courts Of Justice in , with both women arriving to the court house within minutes of one another.
Mrs Rooney was supported by her husband, with her legal team revealing the court would hear evidence from both Mrs Rooney as well as footballer Mr Rooney.
Mr Rooney’s cousin and Mrs Rooney’s brother will also provide evidence, it was added.
Mr David Sherborne, for Mrs Rooney, explained that the witnesses would say that ‘Mrs Rooney doesn’t have a proactive PR… unlike Mrs Vardy’.
He added: ‘And unlike Mrs Vardy again, she is not so keen to get lots of self-promotion or favourable coverage.
‘That was the motive, why Mrs Vardy L***ed information to The Sun.’
Mr Sherborne said witnesses will also explain that Mrs Rooney ‘didn’t tell any of them she was making this sting operation’.
He said it was a ‘surprise’ to them when her post accusing Mrs Vardy was made.
In October 2019 Rooney accused fellow WAG Vardy of leaking ‘false stories’ about her private life to the media, after she said she carried out a months-long ‘sting operation’.
The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney was dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’ when she publicly claimed her fellow footballer’s wife shared three fake stories she’d planted on her personal Instagram account, that only Vardy’s account was able to see, with The Sun newspaper.
These fake stories included Rooney travelling to Mexico for a ‘gender selection’ procedure, her planning to return to TV, as well as the basement flooding at her home.
Rooney wrote on social media at the time: ‘I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them.
‘It’s ………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.’
At the time, Rooney’s post was widely shared and heavily parodied on social media, including by the Twitter account of Jeremy Corbyn, then-leader of the Labour Party.
Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies the accusations and is suing Rooney for libel.
Under English defamation law, the burden of proof now will be on Rooney to prove that her post was ‘substantially true’.
Today Mrs Rooney’s barrister said that she was appearing in the courtroom ‘not because she she wants to, she’s here because she has to be’.
He said: ‘She’s been brought here because of something she wrote.
‘She didn’t want to have to write it any more than she wants to be here.’
Mr Sherborne said social media could be used ‘to share things that you would rather the world didn’t know’, adding: ‘That was the point of her (Mrs Rooney’s) private Instagram account.’
