Rebekah Vardy tells court she was ‘just joking’ amid claim she leaked story
She's been giving evidence for a second day in the libel case
Last updated 11th May 2022
Rebekah Vardy has told the High Court she was "just joking" after a claim suggests she told her agent to leak a story about a celebrity having an affair with a footballer behind her husband's back.
It comes as Rebekah Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, returns back to the witness box for a second day, her libel battle with Coleen Rooney continues in London.
In a viral social media post in October 2019, Coleen Rooney, 36, said she had carried out a "sting operation" and accused Mrs Vardy, 40, of leaking "false stories" about her private life to the press, something Rebekah Vardy denies.
Mrs Vardy denied it was "standard practice" for her to leak private information to a newspaper through her agent, insisting she didn't leak information about her former friend to the media.
What’s happening between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney?
The trial is taking place after Coleen Rooney tweeted about Rebekah Vardy back in October 2019, when she accused Mrs Vardy of using her Instagram account to sell stories about her.
Mrs Rooney received the nickname "Wagatha Christie" after she tried to figure out the person who she believed was selling stories about her to the media.
She came to the conclusion it was Mrs Vardy after blocking everybody but one from viewing her Instagram stories and deciding the source could only be coming from her.
Mrs Vardy is suing her fellow footballer's wife for libel, while Mrs Rooney is defending the claim on the basis her post was "substantially true".
“I was just joking when I said that comment”
During the second day of trial, Mrs Vardy was questioned about messages between her and agent Caroline Watt about an affair between a "well-known celebrity" referred to as Mrs F and a footballer Mr G.
Mrs Rooney's barrister David Sherborne told the court Mrs Vardy had texted her agent: "Omg have you seen how badly Mrs F is behaving x ... I'm actually disgusted by her x" followed by a message "leak the story about her shagging G behind H's back".
When asked about the messages, Mrs Vardy said: "I was just joking when I said this comment."
"Ms Watt doesn't think you're just joking when you say that", Mr Sherborne replied.
'Mrs Vardy “wanted paying” for Danny Drinkwater story'
The court was also told that Mrs Vardy told her agent she "wanted paying" for information about then-Chelsea player Danny Drinkwater leaving police custody after crashing his car in 2019.
Drinkwater was banned from the roads for 20 months and ordered to do 70 hours of community service after pleading guilty to drink driving.
Reading texts between her and Ms Watt, Mr Sherborne said: "You say 'he's only just been let out of the cells last night' and then said you wanted paying for this.
"To which she said 'which police station? They will need to confirm with the police station before they write it'.
Explaining the comment about being paid for information, Mrs Vardy said: "It was a fleeting thought and one I didn't consider any more then when I wrote it, it wasn't a serious comment”.
She later said "it was something that wrongly I got involved with” and apologised that the "messages were not good", adding it was about something that "affected me very badly in the past".
“WhatsApp's were outrageous… friends gossiping”
Mrs Vardy also told the court: "Ms Watt and I have been friends for a long time, sometimes our WhatsApp's were outrageous.
"These are conversations between friends gossiping ... They don't read very well but there is always an explanation."
She added that she was "just gossiping" when asked about messages sent to her agent about the failure of one of her husband's then-teammates to come to training in 2018 and denied her agent passing information to the press.
Mr Sherborne read a message from Mrs Vardy to Ms Watt about then-Leicester City footballer Riyad Mahrez not coming to training, telling Ms Watt "the lads are fuming".
When asked if Ms Watt had told the newspaper other players were "fuming" about the incident, she said: "That's absolutely not true."
The High Court heard Ms Watt said Mrs Rooney was an "attention seeker" in a WhatsApp message to Mrs Vardy after viewing her posts through Mrs Vardy's account, and Mrs Vardy has denied that her agent was monitoring Mrs Rooney's private Instagram account.
Mrs Vardy said: "It was speculation of just bits of information that I had heard and overheard, and also read in the press before.
"Yes, it doesn't look good there, I was gossiping about things that were already in the public domain, I was just gossiping."
‘Coleen Rooney defending on basis of truth and public interest’
Mrs Vardy later denied a suggestion that it was "standard practice" for her to leak private information to The Sun newspaper via Ms Watt.
Mrs Rooney is defending the libel claim on the basis of truth and public interest.
The court previously heard that both women have spent "hundreds of thousands of pounds" on the case so far, with the total costs of the case expected to be at least £2 million.
The fake stories Mrs Rooney planted on her Instagram during the sting operation featured her travelling to Mexico for a "gender selection" procedure, her planning to return to TV, and the basement flooding at her home.
In the post on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, she wrote: "I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them.
"It's .......... Rebekah Vardy's account."
Mrs Vardy has denied she leaked the information to the press and denied the suggestion she was "prepared to lie under oath".
She said in her witness statement: "I have sometimes been caught up in the heat of the moment during conversations with Caroline where I have talked about 'leaks' and payment, but these conversations were never serious, and Caroline would have understood that.
"I have never been paid for private information about anybody apart from myself or my family."