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Becca Monaghan
Jul 30, 2022
Wagatha Christie case: Coleen Rooney wins libel trial brought by Rebekah Vardy
Independent TV
Rebekah Vardy has lost the “Wagatha Christie” battle against Coleen Rooney – and now Twitter has chimed in on the action.
In a viral post from October 2019, Rooney, 36, said she had carried out a months-long “sting operation” and accused Vardy, 40, of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press. The High Court judge found the claims to be “substantially true”.
In a much-anticipated ruling on Friday (29 July), the judge said it was “likely” that Vardy’s agent at the time, Caroline Watt, “undertook the direct act” of passing the information to The Sun.
She added: “Nonetheless, the evidence … clearly shows, in my view, that Mrs Vardy knew of and condoned this behaviour, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt.”
Both women attended a week-long trial at the High Court in London in May, attracting considerable press attention.
Vardy, married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, repeatedly denied leaking information to newspapers, telling the court: “I have been called a leaker and it’s not nice.”
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Well now, Twitter has done what it does best and turned the scandal into a series of memes:
\u201cColeen Rooney offered Chief Superintendent role in the Metropolitan Police \n\n#wagathachristie\u201d— MB (@MB) 1659095657
\u201cThink I\u2019ll take Jamie Vardy out of my fantasy football team, have a feeling his mind will be elsewhere for a while #wagathachristie\u201d— Yeats County Inn (@Yeats County Inn) 1659095745
\u201c#wagathachristie when you have cases like these the lawyers from both sides, win or lose are laughing all the way to the bank. Good pay day for them.\u201d— anthony (@anthony) 1659095625
\u201cROOONNNEEEYYYYYY! #WagathaChristie\u201d— Paddy Power (@Paddy Power) 1659093352
\u201cThe judge should have only told Rebekah Vardy, and no-one else, the verdict last night and sat back to see what happened.\n#wagathachristie\u201d— Peter Smith (@Peter Smith) 1659085781
\u201cColeen Rooney to Rebekah Vardy right now #wagathachristie\u201d— Harrison Brocklehurst (@Harrison Brocklehurst) 1659092898
\u201cRebekah Vardy right now #wagathachristie\u201d— Ol Da Bol (@Ol Da Bol) 1659095399
\u201cColeen Rooney when she spots Rebekah Vardy outside court #wagathachristie\u201d— Liam (@Liam) 1659094050
\u201cThe writers of the Channel 4 #wagathachristie docudrama right now\u201d— Dame Dot CottonCandy, Duchess of Pulp are back\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8 (@Dame Dot CottonCandy, Duchess of Pulp are back\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8) 1659094753
\u201cRebekah Vardy heading in to the North Sea rn so she can find her phone and her laptop so she can appeal \n\n #wagathachristie\u201d— Dame Dot CottonCandy, Duchess of Pulp are back\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8 (@Dame Dot CottonCandy, Duchess of Pulp are back\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8) 1659095503
\u201cWe\u2019d like to speak to the sketch room artist on the #WagathaChristie case\u201d— Specsavers (@Specsavers) 1659095157
\u201cSo does Colleen Rooney now play Johnny Depp in the final, or have I got that all wrong? #wagathachristie\u201d— Daniel Hurley - West Ham books (@Daniel Hurley - West Ham books) 1659092928
\u201cThe chant rises up around the London High Court:\n\nRooooooooooooonneeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy\nRooooooooooooonneeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy\nRooooooooooooonneeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy\nRooooooooooooonneeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy\n\n#wagathachristie\u201d— Balls.ie (@Balls.ie) 1659092874
\u201cI cheered so loudly at the #wagathachristie result that Tom thought I'd had some actual good news that had an impact on my life.\u201d— Sian Meades-Williams (@Sian Meades-Williams) 1659092691
\u201cColeen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy when they see each other in the street.\n\n#Wagathachristie\u201d— Phil Turton (@Phil Turton) 1659094395
During the trial, the two women each gave evidence, as well as Wayne Rooney, 36.
Referring to Rooney’s viral “reveal” post at the end of the trial, her barrister David Sherborne told the court: “It is what she believed at the time… and it is what she believes even more so now that we have got to the end of the case.”
Justice Steyn said in her ruling: “In my judgment, the conclusions that I have reached as to the extent to which the claimant engaged in disclosing to The Sun information to which she only had access as a permitted follower of an Instagram account which she knew, and Mrs Rooney repeatedly asserted, was private, suffice to show the single meaning is substantially true."
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