Wayne Rooney is set to give evidence at London’s High Court, as part of Rebekah Vardy’s libel case against his wife Coleen Rooney.
Day one of the high-profile ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial kicked off today, where Coleen was supported by her sports star husband.
In court this afternoon, Coleen’s lawyer David Sherborne listed some of the people we will be hearing evidence from on her behalf during the trial.
The list included her husband Wayne, Wayne’s cousin Claire Rooney, and one of Coleen’s brothers Joe McLoughlin.
It’s not yet known if Rebekah’s husband Jamie Vardy will give evidence during the trial.
The ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial has been a long time coming, as Rebekah launched her libel suit against Coleen back in 2020 – after she accused her of leaking stories to the press.
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.
In court today, Rebekah’s barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC said his client “had no choice” but to bring the libel claim against Coleen to “establish her innocence and vindicate her reputation”.
In written submissions, he also said: “The allegation in the post was and remains false: Mrs Vardy had not leaked information about Mrs Rooney or her friends and family to the Sun newspaper from her private Instagram account.”
“Mrs Rooney did not have the ‘irrefutable’ evidence that she claimed to have had: her so-called ‘careful investigation’ was nothing of the sort.”
“If anyone had been leaking information from Mrs Rooney’s private Instagram this was not done with Mrs Vardy’s knowledge or approval.”
“Mrs Vardy made strenuous but unsuccessful attempts to settle the case but the post was not taken down. As result, Mrs Vardy had no choice but to bring this libel action to establish her innocence and vindicate her reputation.”
In his opening statement, Hugh Tomlinson QC said it was “unfair” that Coleen didn’t put her allegations to Rebekah before making the post on 9 October 2019.
Rebekah’s lawyer also suggested Coleen “revelled” in the Wagatha Christie image, and screenshotted several images from the internet poking fun at the scandal.
Describing the “horrific” abuse his client suffered after Coleen’s post, Mr Tomlinson told the court how Rebekah was called “an evil rat face b****” on social media.
The WAG, who was seven months pregnant at the time, was also told “her baby should be put in an incinerator”.
