Rebekah Vardy loses libel case against Coleen Rooney

Rebekah Vardy has lost her libel case against Coleen Rooney, bringing the highly-publicised ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial to an end.

Vardy famously sued Rooney after the latter made explosive claims she had been leaking stories about her to the press.

In her ruling, obtained by the PA news agency, Mrs Justice Steyn said it was ‘likely’ that Rebekah Vardy’s then-agent Caroline Watt ‘undertook the direct act’ of passing Coleen’s private stories to The Sun newspaper.

It was then ruled that Rooney’s reveal post was ‘substantially true’ and that Vardy ‘knew of, condoned and was actively engaged’ in leaks to the media by her agent.

Mrs. Justice Steyn said: “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.”

She continued: “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.”

However, she also acknowledged that Vardy had faced ‘vile abuse’ from members of the public following Coleen Rooney’s initial post exposing her as being the culprit who had been leaking her stories to The Sun.

She said: “Some members of the public have responded to the reveal post by subjecting Mrs. Vardy to vile abuse, including messages wishing her, her family, and even her then-unborn baby, ill in the most awful terms.

“Nothing of which Mrs. Vardy has been accused, nor any of the findings in this judgment, provide any justification or excuse for subjecting her or her family, or any other person involved in this case, to such vitriol.”

Mrs Justice Steyn also said there was ‘a degree of self-deception’ on Rebekah Vardy’s part about her role in disclosing information.

She said: “Although significant parts of Mrs Vardy’s evidence were not credible, my assessment is that she is genuinely offended by the accusation made against her by Mrs. Rooney in the reveal post.”

Vardy initially sued Rooney for defamation in a hearing dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’ by fans after Rooney uploaded several fake stories to her private Instagram account in a six month sting to find out who was sharing private information to the press.