Wiktor Szymanowicz | Future Publishing | Getty Images LONDON — The so-called “Wagatha Christie” trial that has gripped the British public ended in a verdict on Friday, with Rebecca Vardy losing her defamation case against fellow soccer star Colin Rooney. The UK High Court ruled against Vardy and in favor of Rooney after a long-running feud between the two ‘wags’ – footballers’ wives and girlfriends – had all the twists and turns of one of Agatha Christie’s best mystery novels. Judge Justice Steyn delivered her written verdict on Friday after a bitter and vicious two-week trial in May. It comes two years after Vardy sued Rooney for defamation following a row over a series of Instagram posts. Rooney claimed that stories from her private Instagram account were leaked by Vardy to reporters from British tabloid newspaper The Sun. Vardy strongly denied the allegations, claiming her accusations had caused “public abuse on a massive scale” and sued Rooney in a bid to clear her name. However, in her ruling on Friday, Stein said it was “likely” that Vardy’s then agent Caroline Watt “undertook the immediate act” of passing on information to the Sun. “The evidence clearly shows, in my view, that Ms Vardy was aware of and condoned this behaviour, actively participating in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending screenshots of Ms Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to on matters of potential interest to the press and responding to additional questions raised by the press through Ms Watt,” he said.
How did we get here?
Rooney and Vardy rose to prominence in the 2000s and 2010s as the so-called Wags – a term now less used due to its sexist connotations – of former England football captain Wayne Rooney and Leicester City player Jamie Vardy, respectively . But the pair, once friends, rose to personal glory after a public crisis. Rooney, suspecting someone was leaking stories from her private Instagram account to the press, launched a sting operation in 2019. She posted a series of fake stories — including traveling to Mexico for a “sex selection” procedure and her flooded basement — gradually cutting off her followers to see if the stories would still appear in the press. Finally, when only one follower remained and the stories continued to leak, Rooney took to social media to post the conclusions of her findings: “It’s………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.” Vardy, who denied the allegations, subsequently sued Rooney for defamation, saying her reputation had been damaged. Rooney argued that her actions were justified in the interest of truth and the public interest.
