Judge gives verdict on ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel trial
The winner of the dispute between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney has been announced
Last updated 29th Jul 2022
Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney have finally found out who has won their highly publicised High Court libel battle in the “Wagatha Christie” case.
In a viral social media post in October 2019, Mrs Rooney accused Mrs Vardy of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.
Mrs Vardy, denied leaking the stories and sued Mrs Rooney for libel.
Judge Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favour of Coleen Rooney as Rebekah Vardy lost her High Court libel battle she brought over the viral social media post.
What did the Wagatha judge say?
In her ruling, Mrs Justice Steyn said it was “likely” that Mrs Vardy’s agent at the time, Caroline Watt, “undertook the direct act” of passing the information to The Sun.
But 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.
The judge added: “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.”
The accusations that started it all
There were three "false" stories Coleen Rooney claimed to have uploaded to her private Instagram account during a months-long "sting operation" which were the centre of her libel dispute with Rebekah Vardy.
In her now famous October 2019 social media "reveal" post, Mrs Rooney claimed her fellow footballer's wife's account was the only one to see the posts and alleged that information from them was leaked to The Sun newspaper - something Mrs Vardy denied being responsible for.
The court case
During the trial, the two women each gave evidence, as did Mr Rooney, who played for Everton and Manchester United as well as England.
Referring to Mrs 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.”
Mr Sherborne argued that Mrs Vardy had a “habitual and established practice” of leaking information about those she knew – through Ms Watt – to The Sun newspaper.
He said there were, in text message exchanges between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt, examples of the pair discussing leaking other people’s private information.
It is believed the total legal costs of the case will be in the region of £3 million, most of which will now be borne by Mrs Vardy.
Judge denounces public abuse
Mrs Justice Steyn said that Rebekah Vardy had faced “vile abuse” from members of the public following Coleen Rooney’s post.
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.”