Coleen Rooney Wins Wagatha Christie Court.

In a legal showdown between soccer wives that combined celebrity, social media and amateur sleuthing, a judge ruled a whodunnit. Judge Karen Steyn on Friday cleared Coleen Rooney of defaming Rebekah Vardy, claiming Vardy leaked her private social media posts to the tabloid press. In a devastating blow for Vardy, who brought the defamation action to defend her reputation, the judge said Rooney’s claim was “substantially true”. Stein said it was possible that Vardy’s agent, Caroline Watt, had passed Rooney’s personal information to The Sun newspaper and that “Ms Vardy was aware of and condoned this behaviour”. Vardy, who sued after Rooney accused her in 2019 of sharing private content on Instagram with The Sun, said she was “extremely saddened and disappointed by the decision”. Rooney said she was satisfied with the verdict, but added it was “not a case I ever sought or wanted.” “I never thought it should have gone to court at such expense at a time of difficulty for so many people when the money could be much better spent helping others,” she said in a statement. The case, heard in the Supreme Court in May, was a media sensation. The women are famous in their own right and both are married to famous footballers: Vardy to Leicester City and England striker Jamie Vardy, Rooney to former Manchester United and England star Wayne Rooney. Then there was the amateur detective who led to Rooney’s accusation. Rooney, 36, said she deliberately posted fake stories on Instagram to find out who leaked her personal details to the press. The stories — including one about a fictional basement flood at the Rooneys’ home and another report that Coleen Rooney was trying to revive her TV career — duly appeared in The Sun. Rooney said she had blocked all accounts from seeing her Instagram stories except for the one she suspected of being the burglar. In a social media post in October 2019 to nearly 2 million followers, she revealed: “It’s Rebekah Vardy’s account …………….. Rooney was dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’, a play on the slang term ‘WAG’ – wives and girlfriends of football stars – and the name of crime writer Agatha Christie. Vardy, 40, strongly denied the leak and sued for defamation “to prove her innocence and vindicate her reputation”, her lawyer Hugh Tomlinson said. The case sparked a media frenzy during seven days of hearings as the two women went to court, along with their husbands, despite being urged by judges and legal experts to compromise. The case reportedly cost each side more than 1 million pounds ($1.2 million) in legal fees. Both women testified during the trial, with Vardy breaking down in tears several times. The judge was scathing about Vardy’s credibility as a witness, saying some of her evidence was “manifestly inconsistent with contemporary evidence, evasive or implausible”. Rooney, by contrast, was “honest and trustworthy”, the judge said. Vardy’s agent did not provide details. Vardy’s lawyers said Watt’s health was too fragile to take the stand. Watt’s phone, which was sought by Rooney’s lawyers as evidence, was reported to have fallen into the North Sea. The judge noted that the chances of it being an accident were “slim”. Media lawyer Jonathan Coad told the BBC the result was “an absolute disaster” for Vardy, who “has effectively been branded a liar”. Although the case was treated by the media and much of the public as an entertaining spectacle, the judge noted that it had a human cost. He said Vardy had been subjected to “brutal abuse” from members of the public after Rooney’s post, “including messages wishing her, her family and even her unborn baby ill in the most dire terms”. “Nothing Ms Vardy has been charged with, nor any of the findings in this judgment, provides any justification or justification for subjecting her family, or anyone else involved in this case, to such vitriol,” he said. Stein. Vardy indicated she would not appeal. “Please the people who have been abusing me and my family can now stop,” he said. “The case is over.”