Rebekah Vardy has lost her “Wagatha Christie” libel trial against Coleen Rooney over a viral social media post.
Vardy, the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, took Rooney, the wife of England‘s record goalscorer Wayne Rooney, to court after she was accused of supplying the press with false stories about her.
The trial was nicknamed “Wagatha Christie” after the term used by the British press to refer to footballers’ wives and girlfriends — WAGs — and the popular writer of detective novels.
Rooney said she posted a series of fake stories about herself on Instagram with a view to finding out who had been leaking information about her, blocking everyone apart from one person on her account from seeing the posts.
When the stories appeared in the press, Rooney posted a message about the source of the leak in which she announced: “It’s………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
Vardy denied leaking the stories, however, and brought the case against Rooney after claiming the allegations had damaged her reputation, while Rooney defended herself on the grounds of truth and public interest.
