Rebekah Vardy has admitted her agent may have leaked stories about Coleen Rooney to the press.
The WAGS are currently locked in a nasty legal battle, after Rebekah launched a libel suit against her former pal in 2020.
In October 2019, the wife of Wayne Rooney claimed she planted false information on her private Instagram page and blocked everyone from her story – except Rebekah’s account.
The mother-of-four said stories about her basement flooding, returning to TV, and gender selection were only viewed by Rebekah’s account – and the false stories all made it into the press.
Coleen believed this was proof that the fellow WAG allegedly sold stories about her private life, but Rebekah has vehemently denied her claims – and is now suing her for libel.
Rooney’s lawyers had previously accused Rebekah of leaking information to The Sun either directly or through her friend and agent Caroline Watt “acting on her instruction or with her knowing approval”.
Rebekah had previously denied this, and insisted she was not responsible for leaking the material and did not know who did.
But with a week to go until the trial, the 40-year-old has admitted she now realises her agent may have leaked information to journalists without her knowledge.
In an updated witness statement, Rebekah said: “I have to accept that it is possible that she [Ms Watt] may have had some form of involvement that I don’t know about.”
“I still find it hard to believe, given all her denials and her support to me during the case, but I can’t understand why the journalists would indicate otherwise.”
“I find it very hard to accept that Caroline would deceive me in this way. I do not know what to think… I am devastated by all this.”
“Not only have I been libelled by Coleen but I have had to face allegations that my close friend has been involved with this, and she is in such a fragile state that I can’t even address it with her properly.”
Speaking in London’s High Court this week, Coleen’s lawyer David Sherborne said: “The collapse of Ms Vardy’s case over the last day has been remarkable.”
“As of Wednesday evening, in an abrupt change of position to her pleaded case, Mrs Vardy appears now to accept Mrs Rooney’s case. That Caroline Watt, Ms Vardy’s close friend and PR, was the Âconduit by which stories from the defendant’s private Instagram account were leaked.”
“It is only now, over two weeks later and on the eve of trial, that Mrs Vardy has been forced to come clean.”
According to The Sun, Mr Sherborne added: “Mrs Rooney has always known Mrs Vardy was complicit in Ms Watt’s activities. Mrs Vardy has condoned, authorised, approved and directed such disclosures by Ms Watt.”
Meanwhile, Rebekah’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC said there had been “important recent developments”.
“They were completely unexpected and outside the claimant’s control. As the claimant explains in her evidence, it has taken her time to process and Âconsider the new information,” he explained.
The trial is scheduled to kick off at London’s High Court on May 9, 2022.
