Rebekah Vardy trial – live: Rooney brands model ‘fame hungry’ as Wayne watches on

Coleen Rooney called Rebekah Vardy “fame hungry” as she aired suspicions the model was behind leaks to The Sun, according to messages read out to court.

The High Court heard exchanges between Ms Rooney and her PR agent Rachel Monk, who had been asked to investigate the source of a story about a babysitter, as the libel trial continued on Monday.

Ms Rooney returned to the witness stand after first giving evidence on Friday, when she told the court publicly naming Ms Vardy’s Instagram account as the suspected source of leaks was her “last resort”.

This 2019 social media post that blamed the leaks from Ms Rooney’s private Instagram on Ms Vardy’s account is at the heart of the trial.

Ms Vardy, who is married to Premier League striker Jamie Vardy, denies the allegations and is suing Ms Rooney for libel.

It was reported at the weekend her agent had tried to talk her out of pursuing legal action.

Key Points

• Ms Rooney called Ms Vardy ‘fame hungry’ in messages to PR

• Vardy and Rooney arrive at High Court for fifth day of trial

• Rooney’s private messages after ‘Wagatha Christie’ post

• What has happened in the trial so far?

• Agent ‘pleaded with Vardy to not sue Rooney'

14:25 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney responded to news that The Sun were running a story about her fake gender selection Instagram post, saying: “Omg omg omg”.

She sent the message to her PR Rachel Monk, Ms Monk said in a witness statement.

Ms Monk has been approached by The Sun about the story and her “immediate reaction... was that it sounded untrue”, the statement said.

She reached out to Ms Rooney to find out if it was true. “I was a bit taken aback by Coleen’s immediate response and asked ‘are they right?’” she said.

“I then spoke with Coleen about the gender selection story, but she wasn’t willing to provide any comment. I remember Coleen’s response being really quite tepid which again took me by surprise given how outlandish the proposed story seemed to me to be,” Ms Monk added.

Ms Rooney testified this morning that she wanted The Sun to run the fake story so that she could have the article as evidence of the leak.

Ms Rooney’s PR says she knew nothing about the ‘Wagatha Christie’ post until it went up

14:14 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney’s PR Rachel Monk has said in a witness statement that she knew nothing about Ms Rooney’s ‘Wagatha Christie’ sting until she saw the post.

She told the court: “I had no foreknowledge of either the post or as previously stated herein, of Coleen’s plan to set an Instagram trap for Rebekah or anyone else. Nor did I help in any way, either in the drafting or the posting of the post at the centre of these proceedings.”

She said in the statement that she was having surgery in hospital at the time that Ms Rooney uploaded her post on 9 October 2019.

“I remember coming out of surgery to a lot of requests for comment for contacts in the media,” she said.

“I had no idea that Coleen had been uploading fake stories to her Private Instagram Account, not that she had limited access to only Rebekah Vardy’s Instagram account, nor that she was going to public about the matter.”

Court returns

13:55 , Holly Bancroft

Wayne and Coleen Rooney, and Rebekah Vardy are back in court. The defence has called Ms Rooney’s PR Rachel Monk to the witness stand.

Ms Rooney has a Caroline Gardner leopard print notebook in front of her, with the words ‘wild and wonderful’ enscribed on the cover.

Morning recap

13:41 , Holly Bancroft

Earlier today, Coleen Rooney was asked about a second “sting operation” that she launched about four months after the first.

She said she had thought about what she was going to do and was going to see if she got the same account as the first time, but that she again did not tell anyone including her husband Wayne.

She told the court she posted as usual, so that it would look like she was doing her regular updates on Instagram.

Ms Rooney said: “I found out whose account it was at the end of it.

“But I feel like in public it has been made out a lot bigger than it actually was, it wasn’t hard to do it.

“But it worked for me and I found out which account was doing it at the end of it.”

Ms Vardy’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC then referred to an article which told of Wayne Rooney’s arrest for drink driving, when he was caught with another woman in the car.

The barrister said it was “another apparent crisis” in their relationship and that Mr Rooney had been “misbehaving”.

Ms Rooney replied: “Yes there has been a few, it’s unfortunate that things have happened in my life and they get publicised, and it has happened quite a few times and I have dealt with it - we have dealt with it as a couple and as a family.”

Mr Tomlinson referred to a “supportive” message sent around that time from Rebekah Vardy to Ms Rooney, saying there was “nothing suspicious” about it.

Ms Rooney said: “I already had suspicions ... so as time went on things just seemed to add up. When there were tough times going on, I did feel like Mrs Vardy would message me.”

She added: “Obviously, having the suspicions that I had, I felt like it was a bit of fishing for information.”

Recap: ‘I’ve never craved press attention in my life,’ says Ms Rooney

13:38 , Holly Bancroft

This morning, Ms Vardy’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC put it to Coleen Rooney that she was “delighted” with the response to her ‘Wagatha Christie’ post, to which she replied: “No I wasn’t.

“I have never craved press attention in my life, I have had it and I have accepted it and I have tried to cope with it, and I have lived my life as best as I can in the public eye.

“I’m not one to draw attention to myself, I never have been, and if I wanted to I could have posted this and done something with it.”

Mr Tomlinson said Ms Rooney had used her fame for “commercial purposes”, to which she answered: “Yeah I have been fortunate that things have come my way and I have took the opportunities and used them.

She said she had appeared in a Netflix documentary that was about her husband Wayne, then added: “I wanted to continue at school but the pressure became quite big at a young age.

“I felt like that was something that I could then control in a way and I think I have done a lot and obviously I haven’t worked for a while because I have had children and I just wanted to be a mum. But I never wanted to be in the public eye, I was thrown into it and I have worked with it.”

Recap: Sting operation reaction was ‘way bigger than I thought’, says Ms Rooney

13:20 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney earlier told the court that the fallout from her October 2019 social media post about her so-called sting operation was “way bigger than I ever thought or what I intended to do”.

She acknowledged, under questioning from Hugh Tomlinson QC, that it was possible other people could have had access to Rebekah Vardy’s Instagram account and were leaking information without her knowledge.

“It’s a possibility, but I didn’t think it was,” she said.

Questioned about the dots used in her social media post prior to her naming of Ms Vardy, Ms Rooney said: “That was just the way I wrote it”, adding that it it was “natural to me”.

Court rises for lunch

12:57 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney has finished giving evidence and the court has risen for lunch.

Three witnesses for the defence are due to be called after the break.

‘I was literally straight away in a legal action’

12:51 , Holly Bancroft

Ms Rooney has said she hasn’t taken down her ‘Wagatha Christie’ post because she was in a legal action straight away.

Ms Rooney is now being cross examined by her own lawyer David Sherborne. Ms Vardy’s lawyer Mr Tomlinson has finished his questioning.

Mr Sherborne read out a legal letter sent to Ms Rooney from Ms Vardy’s legal team on 14th October 2019.

He said: “Then on the Monday you get this letter. You can see it says this... Please also ensure that all material pertaining this matter have been preserved... Under no circumstances must the Twitter post and the Instagram post be deleted.”

Ms Rooney replied: “This is why I haven’t touched the post, because I was literally straight away in a legal action.

“I had to just stop and take advice from people and figure out how it works and what you do next.”

‘Wagatha Christie’ moniker is ‘ridiculous’, Ms Rooney said

12:36 , Holly Bancroft

Ms Rooney has said that her “Wagatha Christie” moniker is “ridiculous”.

Ms Vardy’s lawyer Mr Tomlinson said that she revelled in her portrayal as a detective nicknamed “Wagatha Christie”.

“Which I just think is ridiculous,” Ms Rooney said.

Referring to the trial, Ms Rooney said: “I’ve hated every minute of it.”

Mr Tomlinson told the court that Ms Rooney had screenshotted memes about her post. These included Coleen Rooney’s face on a cartoon of Scoobey Doo unmasking a villain and Ms Rooney’s face on the cover of an Agatha Christie book.

Ms Rooney said: “They’re on my phone but I’ve never done anything with them.”

She added: “I’ve never craved press attention in my life. I’ve had it and I’ve accepted it and I’ve tried to cope with it.”

Rooney: Messages between Vardy and her agent were ‘just evil'

12:28 , Holly Bancroft

Ms Rooney has said that messages about her sent between Ms Vardy and her agent were “just evil and they were uncalled for.”

She told the High Court: “She says she has zero interest in what is going in my life, which I believe is totally untrue.”

“She talks about me a lot without me even knowing her,” Ms Rooney said.

“She’s got no need to talk about me or my Instagram.”

Referring to the messages sent between Ms Vardy and her agent that have been revealed during the trial, Ms Rooney said: “I just feel like the messages that went on between them were just evil and they were uncalled for.

“I’m not a bad person. I’m not the words used.

“There is no need for it because I’ve never done anything to them.”

‘Don’t play games with a girl who can play better’

12:20 , Holly Bancroft

Ms Rooney posted a triumpant message after her ‘Wagatha Christie’ message to her private Instagram followers, saying: “Don’t play games with a girl who can play better”.

Speaking about why she posted this Instagram story, she told the court: “I felt like I had found out who it was, so I put, it was a quote that I found, and I put it up and it was just something that I did.”

Referring to the ‘Wagatha Christie’ post, Ms Rooney said: “I knew it would obviously get attention. I did not think it would go as bigger as it has gone. I never thought I would be here today.”

Speaking about the infamous sentence ‘It’s .......Rebekah Vardy’s account,” she said: “If you go through my day to day messages, I use dots a lot.

“That was just the way I wrote it, it came natural to me.”

Who is the secret Wag?

12:11 , Holly Bancroft

Ms Vardy’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson is now quizzing Ms Rooney about who she believes is ‘The Secret Wag’ - an anonymous column in The Sun about the private lives of the wives and girlfriends of famous UK footballers.

“Your case is that Mrs Vardy is secret Wag, or a principal source or a source for the secret Wag. Do you say that the secret Wag column contains any information from your private Instagram?”, Mr Tomlinson asked.

“No”, Ms Rooney replied.

Mr Tomlinson told Ms Rooney that “the secret Wag column was actually quite nice about you”, adding: “It says that you are the nicest Wag”.

“You think it was a distraction technique by saying that you are the nicest Wag”, Mr Tomlinson put to Ms Rooney. Ms Rooney confirmed she believed that Ms Vardy would attack herself and praise Ms Rooney in the secret Wag column to throw people off the scent.

“I believe that it was done in the same way as my Instagram, so either Mrs Vardy either gives the information herself or through someone else,” Ms Rooney said about the column.

12:00 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney denied thinking Rebekah Vardy was “stupid or reckless” when she suspected her of leaking the babysitter story to The Sun, despite being unfollowed by Ms Rooney around two weeks earlier.

“I didn’t know what Mrs Vardy was thinking at the time,” Mrs Rooney said under questioning from Hugh Tomlinson QC.

Ms Rooney said she thought she had “got away” with her suspicions, but claimed messages emerging from the libel battle revealed that “obviously she was on to me”.

Ms Rooney opens up about ‘the Wayne situation’

11:51 , Holly Bancroft

Ms Rooney has spoken again about the ups and downs in her marriage with Wayne and how difficult she found life in America.

Talking about media speculation about their marriage, she said: “There’s been a few. It’s been unfortunate that things have happened in my life and they get publicised.

“We’ve dealt with it as a couple and as a family. There was a few things that had been publicised over them few years.”

Talking about a private Instagram post she put up with the caption ‘It’s been a difficult year’ during her time in Washington, Ms Rooney said she was referring to: “Homesickness, the Wayne situation, there was quite a few things yeah.”

‘I wanted the story to run’: Ms Rooney wanted fake gender selection story to run in the Sun so she could have evidence of leaking

11:40 , Holly Bancroft

Ms Rooney told the court that she wanted The Sun to run a fake story about gender selection because she wanted evidence that someone was leaking from her Instagram account.

When The Sun got in touch with Ms Rooney’s agent to tell her they were going to run an article about her ‘gender selection’ Instagram story, Ms Rooney instructed her agent to tell them nothing and “just say you can’t get hold of me.”

“I wanted the story to run,” she told the court. “I felt like that would be an extra step. If the papers run it,” she clarified.

She said she didn’t want the gender selection story out there originally. But when it was leaked to The Sun she wanted them to run it so that she could have the evidence that she thought would nail Rebekah Vardy’s account as the one that was the leak.

“I didn’t want it out there. I wanted it for my own evidence,” she said.

Speaking about her ‘Wagatha Christie’ sting, she said: “I feel like in the public it’s been made out much bigger than what it is actually is.”

Ms Rooney called Ms Vardy ‘fame hungry’ in messages to PR

11:29 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney told her PR Rachel Monk that Rebekah Vardy was “fame hungry” and that she suspected her of being the source of the leaks to The Sun, the court heard.

Ms Rooney enlisted Ms Monk’s help in finding out if Ms Vardy had links to The Sun. Ms Rooney suspected Ms Vardy of leaking her private information but wanted to find out if she had the means to do so.

Ms Rooney messaged Ms Monk: “She’s so fake [sic] hungry from stuff she’s done at the world cup she was speaking to the press.”

Ms Rooney clarified in the witness box that ‘fake’ was a typo and that she had meant ‘fame’.

The court also heard how Ms Rooney had sent Ms Monk a screenshot of a story in The Sun about her trip to Soho Farmhouse. She captioned it: “I said I’d keep you updated”.

Recap: Ms Vardy messaged Ms Rooney about why she had been blocked on Instagram

11:15 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney pretended to Ms Vardy that she had blocked Ms Vardy on Instagram because her kids had been playing with her phone.

Ms Vardy’s lawyer Mr Tomlinson put it to Ms Rooney that she had lied in her reply to Ms Vardy by saying she had not realised she had blocked her and that it might have been one of her children.

She replied: “Yes, it was a cover-up for what I was investigating.

Ms Rooney continued: “I had my suspicions that Mrs Vardy could be doing this from her account and when I received that message it made me realise even more that it was suspicious, and I did tell a fib.”

Mr Tomlinson asked: “Why weren’t you honest, Mrs Rooney?”

She replied: “Because I didn’t want to because I had put warning signs out there and Mrs Vardy or whoever was on her account never came to me and said ‘it was me that has been passing information onto The Sun’.

“At that time I didn’t think she would tell the truth anyway, even if I confronted her.”

‘I had to keep it to myself’: Ms Rooney on her ‘Wagatha Christie’ sting

11:00 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney is talking about why she felt she had to keep her ‘Wagatha Christie’ sting secret. She has told the court that she told noone about what she was doing, not even her husband Wayne.

“As I’ve said in previous, on Friday, I don’t like to do something if I’m not 100 percent sure myself, so I wouldn’t mention it anyone,” Ms Rooney told the court.

“There would be a smallest bit of doubt that they might tell someone else.”

“I wanted to do this myself and not tell anyone,” she continued.

“I continued to do it and kept it to myself.”

Referring to an Instagram story about gender selection, that Ms Rooney planted as part of her ‘Wagatha Christie’ sting, she said: “When the first gender selection come out, that was quite hard keeping it to myself but I had to do it...If I wanted to find out who was doing it to me, I had to keep it to myself.”

Ms Rooney said that she didn’t feel that she needed to tell anyone. “I didn’t feel the need that they had to know,” she said.

Ms Rooney added: “The one thing I don’t do is I don’t put my troubles on anyone.”

She said she trys “to deal with things in silence until there’s a need to” tell someone.

“That’s something I’ve always done,” Ms Rooney said.

When asked by Ms Vardy’s lawyer about why she did not confide her plan with her brother, Ms Rooney said: “He’s got nothing to do with my private Instagram so I didn’t have to tell him.”

Ms Vardy and I were not ‘good friends’, Ms Rooney said

10:41 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen Rooney has taken to the witness stand for day five of the libel trial.

She is being quizzed by Ms Vardy’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson about her decision to block Rebekah Vardy on Instagram.

In exchanges read out in court, Rebekah Vardy messaged Ms Rooney to ask why she had been blocked. Ms Rooney replied: “The kids have my phone all the time they have probably done it let me check”.

She told the court that she didn’t confront Ms Vardy about her suspicions she was the leaker because she didn’t trust her to tell the truth.

Ms Rooney said she found Ms Vardy’s message suspicious. “We’re not good friends apart from the odd message now and again.

“I don’t think personally I would go out of my way to message and say: Have I done anything to offend you?”, Ms Rooney said.

“I felt it was suspicious. Obviously I had suspicions in other ways so this just added to the other suspicions that I had.

“When I received that message it made me realise even more than it was suspicious,” Ms Rooney said.

“At that time I didn’t think she would tell the truth anyway even if I confronted her.”

“I didnt feel like she was being truthful to me,” she added.

Mr Tomlinson asked why she thought then that Ms Vardy would lie to her.

Ms Rooney replied that “going back on the evidence” she felt Ms Vardy had told “a lot of lies”.

She concluded: “I had my suspicions that it was Ms Vardy or Ms Vardy’s account. That’s why I didn’t offer to say: ‘Is it you?”.

Wayne Rooney joins wife in court

10:26 , Zoe Tidman

Coleen Rooney is once again joined by husband Wayne Rooney as she prepares to take the stand again:

Vardy and Rooney arrive

10:12 , Zoe Tidman

Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney have arrived at the High Court for the fifth day of the trial.

What did Coleen Rooney tell the court on Friday?

09:54 , Zoe Tidman

Coleen Rooney is due to take the stand shortly.

She gave evidence for the first time in the trial on Friday, after Rebekah Vardy finished giving her evidence.

Here is a reminder of what was said:

Coleen Rooney sent Wagatha Christie post about Rebekah Vardy ‘as last resort’

Coleen Rooney ‘knocked sick’ by Rebekah Vardy’s message about her dead teenage sister

Rebekah Vardy had ‘desire to be famous’, Coleen Rooney claims in libel battle

Coleen Rooney reveals she ‘didn’t know if marriage to Wayne would work out’

Coleen Rooney glad she ‘put an end to Rebekah Vardy leaking private information’

How the Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy row unfolded

09:52 , Zoe Tidman

Before the trial gets going agaim, here is a quick recap of what the row is about:

How the Wagatha Christie row unfolded

Who is Rebekah Vardy?

09:01 , Zoe Tidman

Our political sketch writer, Tom Peck, has been following the trial which kicked off last week.

He has taken a closer look at the woman behind it:

Rebekah Vardy: The woman at the centre of the ‘Wagatha Christie’ case

Agent ‘pleaded with Vardy to not sue Rooney'

08:42 , Zoe Tidman

It was reported at the weekend Rebekah Vardy’s agent - who has a central role in the trial - tried to talk the 40-year-old out of legal action.

Caroline Watt is not expected to be taking the stand in the High Court trial, but her messages with Ms Vardy have been read out.

For more on Ms Watt, as well as the other key players in the case, read here:

Who’s who in the ‘Wagatha Christie’ case

What has the trial seen so far?

08:20 , Zoe Tidman

Before the trial gets going again, here is a reminder of what has happened so far:

First day: Peter Andre ‘chipolata’ interview, online abuse and Wagatha Christie nickname

Seven most explosive moments from first day of ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel trial

Second day: Riyad Mahrez, Danny Drinkwater, and Instagram unfollow

Rooney vs Vardy: Six key moments from day two as Vardy admits trying to leak story

Third day: Tears in stand, missing messages and ‘leader of the WAGs’ title

Key moments from day three of ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial as Vardy breaks down in tears

Fourth day: Marriage troubles, Wagatha Christie post and Andre ‘apology’

Coleen Rooney vs Rebekah Vardy: Highlights from day four as Rooney takes to the stand

What time will trial start today?

08:00 , Zoe Tidman

The trial is expected to kick back off at 10.30am today, when Coleen Rooney’s cross-examination is set to continue.

She was previously expected to just give evidence in the morning, but it may run until the afternoon.

Depending on timings, some other witnesses could get time in the witness box today.

07:43 , Zoe Tidman

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the “Wagatha Christie” libel trial, which is expected to see Coleen Rooney retake the stand today.