After almost three years of expensive legal back-and-forth, Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney are finally going head-to-head in court.
The famous soccer WAGs arrived at London’s High Court of Justice on Tuesday morning for their highly-anticipated libel trial.
In 2019, the wife of English soccer player-turned-manager Wayne Rooney, sensationally accused Rebekah, the spouse of Leicester City player Jamie Vardy, of leaking stories to The Sun newspaper.
Rebekah, who vehemently denied the allegations against her, responded by slapping Coleen with a libel lawsuit.
How did it start?
In October 2019, Coleen shared a lengthy post on her Twitter and Instagram accounts, suggesting “for a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing The SUN newspaper of my private posts and stories.”
Coleen, who has been married to Wayne since 2008, said “after a long time of trying to figure out who it could be, for various reasons,” she had a gut feeling and formulated a plan on how to oust this mystery person.
“It’s ………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
Coleen Rooney
“I blocked everyone from viewing my Instagram stories except ONE account,” Coleen said at the time. “Over the past five months I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into the Sun newspaper. And you know what, they did!”
Coleen noted that she “saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them,” claiming it was “Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
What happened next?
Rebekah, who has been married to Jamie since 2016, addressed the allegations on Twitter the same day, tagging Coleen in her post.
“As I have just said to you on the phone, I wish you had called me if you thought this,” she tweeted in 2019.
“I never speak to anyone about you as various journalists who have asked me to over the years can vouch for. If you thought this was happening you could have told me & I could have changed my passwords to see if it stopped.”
Rebekah continued that “various people have had access” to her Instagram account over the years, adding, “just this week I found I was following people I didn’t know and have never followed myself.”
“I’m not being funny but I don’t need the money, what would I gain from selling stories on you?” Rebekah wrote. “I liked you a lot Coleen & I’m so upset that you have chosen to do this, especially when I’m heavily pregnant.”
Rebekah said she is “disgusted” at “even having to deny this,” and said that “you should have called me the first time this happened.”
She later filed a libel claim against Coleen in June 2020, setting the scene for a court battle which is estimated to have totaled over $3.7 million in legal costs, the Mirror reports.
What can we expect to happen?
Under English defamation law, Coleen and her legal team must successfully prove her post about Rebekah was “substantially true.”
The full trial kicked off on Tuesday morning after months of preliminary hearings — none of which were attended by either of the WAGs.
The case appeared in court for the first time in November 2020, after a judge said Coleen’s post “clearly identified” Rebekah as being “guilty of the serious and consistent breach of trust.”
The pair have both lawyered up and now face each other in high court.
Even if Coleen’s legal team successfully makes its case, The Times reports she may still have to foot the bill on some of the legal costs.
Meanwhile, if Rebekah emerges victorious, she could be awarded paltry damages.
The trial is expected to last for six days, with a ruling at a later date.
