Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy discover the long awaited Wagatha Christie verdict at Friday afternoon’s judgment trial.
It’s become an infamous case, with an infamous nickname, as two celebrities rose to fame as footballers’ wives against each other in the High Court.
Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney dominated headlines as “Wags” – wives and girlfriends of England footballers – but fell out spectacularly when this saga began three years ago.
Rooney believed someone was leaking information about her to The Sun newspaper and embarked on some online detective work to find out who she thought was responsible.
BREAKING: Rebekah Vardy has lost her civil case against Coleen Rooney for libel at the High Court in London. pic.twitter.com/eVMchoW9XM
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) July 29, 2022
Over a numbers of months, she wrote made-up tales on her Instagram stories, restricted who could read them and waited to see if they would appear in The Sun. And just like that the plan was successful.
In October 2019, Rooney claimed in a tweet: “I blocked everyone from viewing my Instagram stories except one account,” before delivering the pay-off: “It’s………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
It was that post that gave rise to the name “Wagatha Christie”, coined by Twitter user Phoebe Roberts, who was a new mum scrolling on her phone when she saw Rooney’s message.
Vardy strongly denied leaking the stories, calling Rooney to protest her innocence and posting her defence on social media.
When there was no public apology coming from Rooney, Vardy decided to sue her for libel, in June 2020.
After seven days of bruising evidence, the so-called Wagatha Christie trial wrapped up on the 19th of May with both parties made to wait months to hear the outcome of the case, however, the legal costs could be much greater than any damages that might be awarded at the end.
The women have paid for and got the full gamut of English justice with final costs of the case up to £4m ($4.8m).
As time has gone on, the interest in this case has grown, getting its own nickname (the Wagatha Christie trial), had it’s own podcast series and now Channel 4 have announced a two-part docudrama with actors playing Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney, recreating the court scenes.
However, today at the High Court there are no photographers and no onlookers with the judgement simply be released online on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website, which will certainly receive rather more traffic than usual.
THE VERDICT:
Mrs Justice Steyn has dismissed the claim Vardy brought against her fellow WAG.
Explaining her decision, the judge wrote the “reveal post” was “a matter of public interest”, namely due to “the undesirable practice of information (in the nature of mere gossip) about celebrities’ private lives being disclosed to the press by trusted individuals”.
She continues: “I also accept that Ms Rooney believed, having given several warnings on her private Instagram account, as well as a public warning, that it was in the public interest to publish the Reveal Post.”
The judge has ruled Vardy was aware that her agent, Caroline Watt, was leaking stories to the press on her behalf.
“The evidence analysed clearly shows, in my view, that Ms Vardy knew of and condoned this behaviour, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account [of Coleen Rooney], sending her screenshots of Ms 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 continues that is “likely” information from Rooney’s private Instagram account was passed to the press by the pair.
“The information disclosed was not deeply confidential, and it can fairly be described as trivial, but it does not need to be confidential or important to meet the sting of the libel,” she wrote.
“It was information derived from private posts that Ms Rooney did not want made public.”
The judge dismissed claims from Vardy that other people may have had access to her Instagram account – and been the source of the leaked stories.
Mrs Justice Steyn wrote: “There is robust evidence that Ms Vardy’s Instagram account was not compromised.
“Aside from one occasion when Mr Jones was given access for a day, only Ms Vardy and Ms Watt accessed her account and Ms Vardy knew that was the case.”
Mrs Justice Steyn has also concluded it is “probable” that Vardy deleted WhatsApp messages which would have further supported Rooney’s case.
There was significant missing evidence in the case, with months worth of WhatsApp messages deleted, and the judge calls their accidental loss “improbable”.
Vardy claimed she had changed phones, and lost the messages when exporting the WhatsApp file to a laptop, which was later destroyed.
Justice Steyn writes: “In my judgment, it is probable that Ms Vardy deleted these messages. It is impossible to speculate what the messages and media files exchanged during this period may have shown, but the deletion of this material reinforces my conclusion that the loss by both Ms Vardy and Ms Watt of their original WhatsApp conversation during the key period was not accidental.”
Ms Watts claimed her phone was lost at sea in August 2021. An order requiring her device to be inspected had been made on 4 August 2021.
The judge writes: “The timing is striking. In my judgment, even taking this evidence on its own, the likelihood that the loss Ms Watt describes was accidental is slim.”
She also says it would have “been impossible” for the loss of Vardy’s WhatsApp data to have happened in the way she claimed.
“It is still more improbable that a computer malfunction at either stage of the export process would have resulted in the deletion of the WhatsApp chat between Ms Vardy and Ms Watt while Ms Vardy’s WhatsApp exchanges with others were (at least in part) retained,” she adds.
The judge also finds it is “probable” Vardy leaked more information to the press than the eight posts mentioned at court.
In her judgment, she writes: “Having regard to the evidence that is available, and my conclusions regarding the evidence which is missing, it is appropriate to draw an inference that Ms Vardy and Ms Watt together leaked more information from the private Instagram account over the course of 2017-2019 than that which is contained in the eight posts to which I have referred.”
The judge has found Vardy was “manifestly inconsistent” on “many occasions” when she gave evidence in the trial.
In her judgment, she said: “It was evident that Mrs Vardy found the process of giving evidence stressful and, at times, distressing. I bear in mind when assessing her evidence the degree of stress she was naturally feeling, given the high-profile nature of the trial, the abuse that she has suffered since the reveal post was published, and the length of time she was in the witness box.”
The judge added: “Nevertheless, I find that it is, unfortunately, necessary to treat Mrs Vardy’s evidence with very considerable caution.
“There were many occasions when her evidence was manifestly inconsistent with the contemporaneous documentary evidence, e.g. in relation to the World Cup 2018 and the photoshopped pictures, and others where she was evasive.”
She also said there was a “degree of self-deception” on Vardy’s part about her role in disclosing evidence.
“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 (Coleen) Rooney in the reveal post.
“However, that is not because she was not involved in disclosing information from the private Instagram account: I have found that she was.
“Rather, her indignation at the accusation flows, in my judgment, from a combination of factors.
“Mrs Vardy’s part in disclosing information to The Sun was, it seems to me, unthinking rather than part of a considered and concerted business practice.”
The judge has ruled the reason Vardy’s agent withdrew her evidence pre-trial was because she “knew the evidence in her statements was untrue”.
Mrs Justice Steyn has said this was motivated in part due to her friend’s welfare – but also because she knew what she was claiming was not true.
In her judgment, she writes: “In my view, the claimant’s decision not to seek to call Ms Watt, against her will, was motivated, to a substantial degree, by concern for her friend’s welfare.
“But in the circumstances, I also draw the inference that Mrs Vardy chose not to call Ms Watt because she knew that when tested in cross-examination her evidence would be shown to be untrue and that it would have been highly likely to have undermined the claimant’s case that she had no involvement in disclosing information from the private Instagram account.”
Twitter users reacted as Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy discover Wagatha Christie verdict at judgment trial…
@ridgebackpop: So now this is all over, I guess Rooney and Vardy can just get back to being besties again 🤗
@webbounited: Rooney 1-0 Vardy
@danish_1024: And rooney slots it home at the back post
@TimElgin: AND ROONEY HAS WON IT!!
@cowell64807: Spunked over 1 mil of her husband’s money on something we all knew she did, horrible person……
@_SamAddison: ‘Your wife is a grass’ chants all season means the golden boot is coming back home for the 🐐
@mjfitzmusic: Neither wins here. PR disaster for both involved never mind the costs. Pointless case. Only winner is if this goes to film but who on earth would watch that shite. #WAGATHA
@oliviazao: Nah what a waste of time and money 😭
@pokitosenan: Delighted for Coleen tbh. Greatest sting operation of all time. 🕵️♀️👏👏
@GRODSTER: The only winners here are the lawyers who made a ton of money out of these two 💁🏼♀️ They’ll be laughing all the way to the bank! Ching ching! 💰 #WagathaChristie
@craigycraigo84: I’m not a fan of either but this was incredibly stupid by Vardy given the huge amount of evidence
@KingFB_: Looool Vardy your wife is a disgrace 😩 that trap set by Coleen was legendary
@SongStoryClub: Hahaha, Jamie Vardy is going to have to play until he’s 63 to pay this off on behalf of his awful, greedy wife.
@ChrisJefNorman: Remember when we all thought the Vardy movie would be about Jamie?
@McsEmma: Can’t wait for the @NetflixUK documentary on this 😂😂 #wagathachristie
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