Rebekah Vardy burst out crying in the witness box on the second day of the Wagatha Christie libel trial when Coleen Rooney‘s lawyer brought up how Twitter trolls had once threatened to rape her two-year-old daughter – as she denied lying under oath by testifying that she rarely leaked stories to the media.
The 40-year-old – who was seven months pregnant with the child when Coleen, 36, accused her of leaking stories in an October 2019 Instagram post – took the stand today for another exhausting cross-examination which only ended when the court had to be evacuated due to a fire alarm.
Coleen publicly ‘outed’ her fellow WAG of sharing three fake stories she had posted on her personal Instagram with The Sun as part of what she described as a social media ‘sting’ operation. Rebekah vehemently denied the allegation – leading her to launch the £3million legal action which is now in its second day.
This afternoon, barrister David Sherbourne referred to an article in The Sun from 2017 where Rebekah spoke of the ‘vile’ abuse she had received online – including the sick rape threats against her child.
‘Horrible stuff’, said Mr Sherborne, before judge Mrs Justice Steyn saw that Rebekah was dabbing at her eyes with a tissue and suggested the court took a break. Rebekah shook her head and carried on.
Asked again a few moments later if she would like a break, Rebekah replied: ‘I don’t think it’s going to make any difference, to be honest.’
Rebekah denied the suggestion she was building a relationship with The Sun by ‘consistently’ providing it with exclusives.
‘I’m working with The Sun because they are going to print the story. They are going to give me the opportunity to give my story,’ she said.
Earlier today, Mr Sherborne read out a series of texts in which Rebekah told her agent Caroline Watt to ‘leak’ stories about footballer Riyad Mahrez, the model Danielle Lloyd, and one unnamed high-profile celebrity.
In response, she told the court these exchanges were ‘never serious’ and Ms Watt would have ‘understood’ this – prompting Mr Sherbourne to dramatically accuse her of lying under oath.
Rebekah Vardy broke down in tears today when Coleen Rooney ‘s lawyer brought up how Twitter trolls had once threatened to rape her two-year-old daughter
Rebekah leaves the High Court this afternoon after her brutal cross-examination ended early due to a fire alarm
Coleen leaves the Royal Courts of Justice with her barrister, David Sherborne, following behind her in court dress
Rebekah did admit to sharing a tip about Danny Drinkwater – who, like Mahrez, was her husband Jamie’s colleague at Leicester.
The WAG said she informed Ms Watt he was about to leave police custody because she was ‘deeply affected’ by drink-driving after her ex-husband ‘killed two people’.
But when asked about a text where she told Ms Watt she ‘wanted money’ for the story about Drinkwater, Rebekah insisted she was joking.
Coleen was seen furiously taking notes throughout her rival’s cross-examination, while Wayne looked straight ahead, unable to look at her as she gave evidence.
Among the key claims heard at today’s sensational Wagatha Christie showdown –
- Rebekah Vardy and her publicist Caroline Watt worked to improve the WAG’s media coverage and plotted to leak several stories to The Sun;
- Ms Watt once ‘boasted’ that a Sun journalist ‘always writes nice stories’ about Rebekah and ‘does whatever I ask her’;
- Rebekah has been accused of trying to leak model Danielle Lloyd’s miscarriage to the media following a ‘spat on Instagram’ – an allegation which she has denied;
- It was ‘standard practice’ for Rebekah to give her publicist information to pass on to journalists, and that Ms Watt would do Rebekah’s ‘dirty work’ for her;
- Jamie Vardy’s wife tried to leak news of footballer Danny Drinkwater’s drink-driving arrest to The Sun newspaper and ‘wanted paying’ for any information that reached the Press;
- She and Ms Watt discussed leaking a story about a female celebrity accused of cheating on her husband with a ‘well-known footballer’ – but the WAG insisted that she was just ‘joking’;
- Rebekah ‘tried to ‘do the dirty’ and spill the beans on unrest in the Leicester City dressing room when star player Riyad Mahrez went ‘on strike’ – but denied she had leaked the story to The Sun and had been ‘gossiping’;
- The WAG told her publicist Ms Watt to look at Coleen’s private Instagram account through her own personal account, but denied that she ordered her to ‘monitor’ the page;
- After Coleen unfollowed Rebekah on Instagram, Rebekah called her a ‘c***’ in a text to Ms Watt;
- Agent ‘boasted’ that a journalist ‘always writes nice stories’ about Rebekah Vardy and ‘does whatever I ask her’;
Rebekah, 40, (seen leaving court accompanied by a security guard) went for a full-on designer look, pairing a black, high-neck £1,780 Prada dress with a matching £1,245 blazer from Alexander McQueen
Rebekah took to the witness stand again today after repeatedly denying being a leaker during her yesterday’s testimony. She is seen leaving court
Coleen was once again accompanied by her Derby County manager husband Wayne (right), who carried a leather handbag containing a file
The wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy was accompanied by a security guard as she made her way through a scrum of photographers
Today saw the toxic feud between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy spill out into the High Court for a second day after months of painstaking pre-trial hearings.
Below is a summary of the evidence as it was heard in court:
Rebekah ”’tried to do the dirty” and spill the beans on unrest at Leicester when star play Riyad Mahrez ”went on strike”’
Today, the court heard claims Rebekah tried to ‘do the dirty’ and spill the beans on unrest in the Leicester City dressing room when star player Riyad Mahrez went ‘on strike’.
The court heard Rebekah contacted her agent Caroline Watt after Mahrez failed to turn up for training for the second day running.
At the time of the exchange in February 2018, Mahrez was seeking a move to Manchester City.
In the WhatsApp message, Rebekah wrote: ‘Mahrez not turned up for training again. The lads are fuming.’
Ms Watt suggested she contact TV reporter Rob Dorsett, who was one of the journalists covering the story for Sky Sports News.
Rebekah replied that she didn’t want the story to ‘come back on me.’
Under cross examination from Coleen Rooney’s barrister David Sherborne, she said: ‘It was pretty much unheard of for a player to go one strike and not turn up for training.
She said the story of the turmoil in the dressing room ‘absolutely 100 per cent did not come from me’.
But she admitted that ‘in a fleeting moment’ it appeared from Watt’s response that she was ‘prepared to do her dirty work’ for her.
She insisted the information didn’t come from husband Jamie, Leicester City’s star striker, saying: ‘It was speculation of just bits of information that I had heard and overheard, and also read in the press before.’
She added: ‘Yes, it doesn’t look good there, I was gossiping about things that we already in the public domain. I was just gossiping.’
Rebekah said she did not know whether or not her husband’s then team-mates were ‘fuming’ about Mr Mahrez not turning up for training.
‘It was probably something I was plucking from thin air. It was just a gossip that was all,’ she told the court.
She also said: ‘It was a speculation of bits of information that I’ve heard and overheard, and also they had been in the press before.’
Rebekah Vardy claims she leaked tip about footballer Danny Drinkwater’s drink drive arrest after being ‘deeply affected’ by her ex killing two in car crash, trial hears
Rebekah Vardy told her agent she ‘wanted paying’ for information about footballer Danny Drinkwater leaving police custody after crashing his car, the Wagatha Christie trial heard today.
The WAG, 40, said she sent the information on Drinkwater’s night in the cells to her agent Caroline Watt because she was ‘deeply affected’ by drink-driving after her ex-husband ‘killed two people’.
Steve Clarke was the boss at Rebekah’s timeshare company. She met him while in her twenties but they split after he caused a head-on crash which killed two people and saw him sentenced to two years in jail.
Rebekah is suing fellow footballer’s wife Coleen Rooney, 36, for libel, with the £3million week-long trial under way at the High Court.
Coleen publicly claimed in October 2019 that Rebekah leaked three stories from a private Instagram account to the Sun, an allegation Rebekah says is false and defamatory.
Today, Coleen’s lawyer, David Sherborne, read texts exchanged by Rebekah and Ms Watt.
Mr Sherborne said: ‘You say ‘he’s only just been let out of the cells last night’ and then said you wanted paying for this.
‘To which she said ”which police station? They will need to confirm with the police station before they write it”.
‘The ”they” she’s referring to is The Sun, isn’t it?’
Rebekah confirmed ‘they’ referred to The Sun, but claimed her comment about wanting money ‘wasn’t serious’.
Drinkwater used to play for Leicester City with her husband, Jamie Vardy, and in 2019 played for Chelsea. He is now at Reading
Rebekah sent a message to Ms Watt to tell her that Drinkwater had been arrested, the court heard.
‘Danny Drinkwater arrested… Crashed his car drunk with 2 girls in it … both in hospital one with broken ribs,’ court documents show.
Rebekah also said: ‘I want paying for this.’
She told the court she was ‘deeply affected’ by drink-driving as her ex-husband ‘killed two people’.
Later, it emerged the story had already come out.
‘Holy F*** … I’m fuming I didn’t give it to you earlier,’ Rebekah sent in a message to Ms Watt.
‘Me too,’ Ms Watt replied. ‘That would have been a fortune.’
Rebekah told the court that was correct but added Ms Watt also included ‘laughing face’ emojis.
‘I realise how badly they read and again I apologise,’ she says. ‘But again these are private conversations between two people… that knew each other’s sense of humour.’
Mr Sherborne asks if this was a joke or serious, and says Rebekah ‘can’t have it both ways’.
Rebekah said in relation to her message exchange with Ms Watt about the Drinkwater story that ‘it was something that wrongly I got involved with’.
She said she apologised and that the ‘messages were not good’, adding it was about something that ‘affected me very badly in the past’.
In May 2019, Drinkwater was banned from driving for 20 months and ordered to carry out 70 hours’ community service after admitting drink-driving.
He had two women passengers in the car and caused £50,000 of damage to the vehicle.
During the exchange over Drinkwater’s crash, Ms Watt urged Rebekah to contact the footballer on Instagram because they needed to find out his address in Cheshire, the court was told.
It was part of an exchange in which Ms Watt explained that she needed more details to help journalists follow up the story, according to Coleen’s barrister David Sherborne.
But Rebekah denied this.
She said: ‘If I did message him, and I can’t remember if I did, I would probably have told him he is a f****** idiot.’
Rebekah spotted one of Coleen’s children without a seatbelt only to be told ”It’s on her private Insta so can’t do anything with it”’
Mr Sherborne asked Rebekah about a message exchange with Ms Watt, which mentioned a picture of Coleen on a school run.
‘One of Coleen’s kids looks like he’s got no seatbelt on,’ Rebekah told Ms Watt about a picture shared on Coleen’s private Instagram.
Ms Watt immediately knew what Rebekah was talking about, Mr Sherborne says, and called it an example of Ms Watt ‘monitoring’ Coleen’s account.
Today, Coleen’s lawyer, David Sherborne, read texts exchanged by Rebekah and Ms Watt in which they discussed a story about footballer Danny Drinkwater
A court sketch showing Rebekah Vardy (left) appearing in the witness box in front of the Rooneys, with Wayne (middle) unable to look at her
Rebekah denied this.
‘It’s on her private Insta so can’t do anything with it,’ the court heard Ms Watt told her client.
‘She’s such a d**k,’ Rebekah said in one message.
She then denied she was directing Ms Watt to the story to leak it to a newspaper.
Mr Sherborne said Rebekah ‘knew perfectly well’ what Ms Watt meant by ‘can’t do anything with it’.
Mr Sherborne said the matter was important, as yesterday Rebekah told the court she did not know Ms Watt was accessing private information through her own account.
Vardy described it as a ‘mix of words’.
Mr Sherborne reminds Vardy that she agreed yesterday that it would be ‘wrong’ if this was happening.
She says again that they were ‘just gossiping’ and denies ‘condoning’ Ms Watt to leak stories.
Rebekah Vardy hired publicist Caroline Watt so she could ‘tell my truth’
Rebekah has told the High Court that hired publicist Caroline Watt so she could tell ‘my truth’.
Jamie Vardy’s wife linked up with Ms Watt after joining talent management agency Front Row Partnership (FRP) in 2016.
She told the court: ‘She was offering me a way to tell my side of the story. There’s only one way I can tell my story and that’s my truth.
‘I wanted the opportunity to tell my story, about what happened in my past instead of what was represented in the media about me, which wasn’t true.’
A rare laugh was heard in the High Court today after Coleen’s lawyer admitted he doesn’t know who Ant Middleton is.
It came after Rebekah Vardy told the court that she was not Caroline Watt’s agency’s most important client as the former Chief Instructor on the Channel 4 television series SAS: Who Dares Wins was also on the books.
David Sherborne then said: ‘Sorry. I don’t know who Ant Middleton is. You’ll have to explain’ – prompting a laugh.
Mr Sherborne ran through a series of newspaper articles which appeared after Rebekah signed up for the agency.
They included a story about Rebekah’s five-year-old daughter being banned from attending their upcoming wedding by his ex-wife and security being stepped up as England’s footballers prepared to jet out to France to play in the 2016 Euro championship.
Rebekah also signed up by The Sun newspaper to write a Euro Diary after Jamie was selected to play in the squad.
She said of the column: ‘This was an opportunity for me to earn my own money. I didn’t want to rely on my husband. Jamie and I discussed it and there was no problem.’
Another story highlighted how Rebekah ended up ‘jumping up and down like a loony’ after husband Jamie scored the opening goal in England’s 2-1 victory against Wales in their group stage match.
Asked about the piece she said: ‘That’s right, I did. It was an amazing moment.’
Rebekah told Ms Watt to look at Coleen’s private Instagram in relation to car crash post
Rebekah admitted to directing her her agent to look at Coleen’s private Instagram in relation a ‘fake’ post she made about a car crash.
In a January 2019 exchange, Ms Watt asked her: ‘Am I imagining this or did you say yesterday that Coleen had crashed her Honda?’ the court heard.
‘She defo has… Go in the Instagram,’ Rebekah replied, according to court documents.
Mr Sherborne highlighted that on the first day of the trial Rebekah had agreed it would have been ‘wrong’ if Ms Watt was looking at people’s private Instagram accounts through the use of Rebekah’s account.
He put it to Rebekah that, in this instance, she was directing her agent to Coleen’s Instagram.
‘Yes, I am,’ Rebekah said.
Coleen smiled as she got out of a waiting car (left) while Rebekah – who emerged from a black Mercedes – wore a more neutral expression
Rebekah strolls towards the entrance of the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand for day 2 of the Wagatha Christie trial
Coleen and Wayne leave their car outside the High Court. The former England striker has been accompanying his wife throughout the trial
Today Rebekah denied that photos of her and Coleen Rooney together at an international football match were a ‘set up’ following information from a photography agency
Rebekah Vardy ‘deliberately took someone else’s seat behind Coleen Rooney at Euro 2016 match so she could boost her publicity’
Rebekah denied that photos of her and Coleen Rooney together at an international football match were a ‘set up’ following information from a photography agency.
David Sherborne suggested: ‘You were told by those at Splash that if you sat behind Mrs Rooney, you would get good photo coverage.’
She replied: ‘No, not true.’
Mr Sherborne later discussed an interview Mrs Vardy had given to The Sun in December 2016 while she was pregnant.
After Mrs Vardy initially said she did not remember the article, Mr Sherborne held up one of the photos used in the exclusive piece, adding: ‘You think you might recall these rather large images of you naked in a national newspaper.’
Mrs Vardy said they were her own pictures, adding: ‘They weren’t taken for the purposes of this article.’
Rebekah rebuffed a claim that a member of her party had told an FÅ representative to ‘F*** off’ when they were told they were sitting in the wrong seat.
Rebekah texted agent ‘OMG what a c***’ after Coleen stopped following her – then ‘discussed whether the leak of a story from Coleen’s private Instagram about her ”car crash” was the reason’;
Rebekah was asked during the cross examination about WhatsApp messages she sent to Caroline Watt about Coleen unfollowing her on Instagram.
‘What a c***,’ Rebekah said, when she realised Coleen was no longer following her.
Coleen’s lawyer Mr Sherborne told the court about a story that appeared in The Sun about Coleen being in a car crash, written by journalist Andy Halls.
Rebekah discussed in the texts whether this could have been the reason Coleen stopped following her.
Rebekah said in a message to Ms Watt that she doesn’t know how Coleen ‘would ever know that unless Halls has leaked it, in which case please don’t give him the Mr X stuff’.
‘Mr X’ was a married footballer who had an affair with a woman who became pregnant, the court heard.
Mr Sherborne suggested this means that if the journalist ‘has dobbed us in’, don’t give him the ‘juicy gossip’.
Rebekah said that the story about Mr X was ‘widely known’ and there was speculation on social media about it.
The WAG said it was ‘not true’ the car crash post had been leaked by Ms Watt to the Sun.
Mr Sherborne said Ms Watt came up with a ‘lie’ that her laptop had been left with ‘one of the girls’ at her company.
Rebekah – ‘I was ”just joking” when I told my agent to ”leak” story about celebrity ”s******g behind her husband’s back”’
Rebekah discussed with her agent Caroline Watt leaking a story about a woman allegedly cheating on her husband, the High Court has heard.
The WAG insisted she was ‘just joking’ when Mr Sherborne questioned her about what she said in reference to a story about a woman named only as Mrs F – a ‘well-known celebrity’ – her estranged husband Mr H and Mr G, a ‘well-known footballer’.
Rebekah told Ms Watt that she should ‘leak the story about her s******g G behind H’s back’,’ Mr Sherborne said.
Jamie Vardy’s wife said she was ‘a bit shocked and a bit disgusted about what I’d seen in the paper’.
Mr Sherborne asked whether she was so annoyed that she had instructed Ms Watt to leak a story about Mrs F allegedly cheating.
‘That’s the way it reads,’ she replied, adding: ‘Again, in context, bits of information mixed in with other bits of information. I was actually just joking about that one.’
Rebekah denied the suggestion it was ‘standard practice’ for her to leak private information to The Sun via her agent.
While questioning her over an alleged leak of a story about a footballer, referred to in court only as Mr X, being unfaithful to his partner, Mr Sherborne said: ‘That was standard practice, wasn’t it, that you gave information to Ms Watt and she would give it to the Sun?’
‘No,’ she replied.
When asked if Sun reporter Andy Halls was a ‘good conduit’ for information, she said: ‘No, that’s not the case. I never gave him information.’
Jamie Vardy training with his fellow Leicester player Riyad Mahrez. Today, Rebekah was accused of leaking a story about Mahrez missing training
Rebekah admitted to sharing a tip about Danny Drinkwater – who, like Mahrez, was her husband Jamie’s colleague at Leicester
Rebekah ‘tried to leak a story about Danielle Lloyd going to the Maldives and suffering a miscarriage’
Rebekah fell out with another high-profile WAG which led to a legal dispute, the High Court heard.
The court heard Vardy had a ‘spat on Instagram’ with Danielle Lloyd, the former wife of ex Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Jamie O’Hara.
Rebekah’s dispute with Danielle Lloyd (pictured) led to ‘legal correspondence’ between the pair the court heard
A dispute led to ‘legal correspondence’ between the pair the court heard.
Coleen’s barrister claimed messages between Rebebekah and her agent showed she was trying to leak information about a pregnant woman who went on honeymoon to the Maldives but went on to suffer a miscarriage.
Vardy revealed the woman was Lloyd but denied leaking stories.
She explained why she sent a message during the exchange saying: ‘She’s gone and done it now.’
Explaining the message under cross-examination she said: ‘She had been on holiday to the Maldives in the early stages of pregnancy. You wouldn’t travel to the Maldives because of Zika virus.’
She insisted she had not had a ‘major beef’ with Lloyd but said the pair had ‘more of a disagreement,’ about selecting the gender of babies.
Rebekah told the court she did not agree with gender selection while Lloyd, who had the opposite view, had appeared on TV discussing the issue.
Rebekah told the court Lloyd had sent her ‘a few irritated messages’ adding: ‘She just asked me a couple of questions about a few things’.
She insisted she ‘was not ‘privy to any information’ on Lloyd and did not leak the story about her.
The court has heard that Coleen had placed a false ‘story’ about gender selection on her private Instagram account saying she had husband Wayne were trying for a baby girl after having four sons.
It was part of her ‘Wagatha Christie’ investigation into who had been leaking stories about her to the press.
JANUARY 2019: Rebekah texts Miss Watt and is said to have described Coleen as a ‘nasty b****… I’ve taken a big dislike to her! She thinks she’s amazing…Would love to leak those stories’
FEBRUARY 2019: Ms Watt and Rebekah realise Coleen has unfollowed them on Instagram. In a series of messages, Rebekah, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, 35, is said to have described Coleen as a ‘nasty b****’ and a ‘c***’, while Ms Watt brands the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney as ‘trash’ and ‘up her own ar**’
OCTOBER 2019: The pair discuss their response to Coleen’s now infamous Wagatha Christie claims. The text messages are said to show Rebekah describing Mrs Rooney as a ‘b***’ and a ‘c***’
Ms Watt ‘boasted’ that a journalist ‘always writes nice stories’ about Rebekah Vardy and ‘does whatever I ask her’, court hears
Rebekah’s agent once ‘boasted’ that a Sun journalist ‘always writes nice stories’ about her client and ‘does whatever I ask her’, London’s High Court has heard.
Coleen’s lawyer David Sherborne asked Rebekah about a message Ms Watt sent the WAG about one of The Sun journalists who wrote about her.
She ‘always writes nice stories’ and ‘does whatever I ask her,’ Ms Watt wrote.
Rebekah agreed this is ‘helpful if it’s true’ – but rejected the suggestion she was building a relationship with The Sun with numerous exclusives.
Mr Sherborne put to her that she had been ‘consistently’ giving stories to the paper.
She responded: ‘I’m working with The Sun because they are going to print the story. They are going to give me the opportunity to give my story.’
Rebekah met with a journalist for lunch but insists she ‘actively avoided’ forming relationships with reporters
Rebekah stood by remarks in her witness statement that she ‘actively avoided’ forming relationships with journalists after being shown Instagram messages which revealed she planned to meet Sun reporter Hannah Hope for lunch and set her up on a date.
Mr Sherborne, reading the extract from her witness statement, said: ‘I do not have close relationships with any journalist at The Sun newspaper.
‘I actively avoid developing relationships with journalists because I assume they would be making friends with me to obtain stories.’
He added: ‘Was what we see with Hannah Hope you actively developing a relationship with her ?’
‘I would not say that was developing a relationship’ Rebekah Vardy said. When previously asked if she was ‘befriending’ Ms Hope, Rebekah said she was ‘just being nice to her on Instagram’.
Mr Sherborne, in describing the exchanges between Rebekah and Ms Hope, said: ‘You suggested lunch, that you would set her up with someone.’
Source: Daily Mail