THE Wagatha Christie saga had everybody talking, due to its tale of a MAJOR fallout between two very high-profile Wags.
The story involved two former friends – Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy – and resulted in a High Court libel battle. Here’s how the action unfolded.
On October 9, 2019, Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy’s friendship changed forever.
It came after Coleen shared a lengthy Instagram post accusing her pal of leaking stories about her.
She suspected Rebekah was tipping off the press “without her permission or knowledge”.
Turning detective, Coleen changed her Instagram settings and claimed only Becky could see her posts.
She reportedly planted “fake stories” as posts, to see if they ended up in the press.
Coleen claimed the only viewer of these posts was Rebekah.
Mrs. Vardy immediately denied having any involvement.
In response to the claims, The Sun said that every story provided about Coleen was put to her representatives before publication and on each occasion, they declined to comment.
A Sun Spokesperson said: “Like all reputable media organisations, we don’t comment on sources.”
In 2022, three years after Coleen’s initial accusation, Rebekah launched a libel case against her, which she lost.
The full Wagatha Christie timeline
The Wagatha Christie saga – as it was aptly named in reference to Rooney turning detective – kicked off in 2019, with Rebekah accused of leaking stories.
It then continued until 2022, and included a High Court libel case.
Here is the full timeline of events:
- October 9, 2019 – Coleen Rooney accused Rebekah Vardy of ‘leaking stories about her’.
- October 9, 2019 – Rebekah took to her social media and denied being the leak.
- Coleen’s bombshell post went viral and sparked a host of responses and memes.
- October 9, 2019 – A Sun spokesperson said: “Like all reputable media organisations, we don’t comment on sources.”
- October 10, 2019 – The Sun exclusively revealed that Rebekah had called Coleen and begged her down the phone to believe she wasn’t at fault.
- October 10, 2019 – The day after the drama kicked off Rebekah slammed Coleen for inviting cruel trolls to bully her.
- October 11, 2019 – Rebekah demanded Coleen hand over the screenshots that allegedly proved her Instagram profile was the only one used to view personal posts.
- May, 5, 2020 – Rebekah said she would settle for nothing less than a public apology from Coleen.
- June 22, 2020 – It is revealed that Rebekah had launched a £1million lawsuit in a bid to clear her name.
- June 23, 2020 – Coleen said she was “disappointed” by Rebekah’s decision to go to court.
- August 4, 2021 – Requests are made for Jamie Vardy’s phone to be handed in to be searched.
- February 8, 2022 – the High Court heard how crucial messages relating to the case had “disappeared” as Jamie Vardy’s WhatsApp messages are said to have been “hacked and been deleted”.
- February 8, 2022 – The High Court learned that Rebekah’s agent Caroline’s phone was said to have “fallen into the North Sea” shortly after the Court requested access to it.
- February 9, 2022 – Coleen’s lawyer alleged there were WhatsApp messages between Rebekah and Caroline in which they “admitted to leaking news about Coleen”.
- May 10, 2022 – The two WAGS came face-to-face in court when their libel trial kicked off at the Royal Courts of Justice in London before Mrs Justice Steyn.
- July 29, 2022 – Rebekah lost her High Court libel case against Coleen, which brought the so-called Wagatha Christie trial to an end.
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The aftermath
Since the trial ended in 2022, both women have had a chance to tell their own side of the story.
Here we take a look at what Coleen and Rebekah had to say in the aftermath of Wagatha Christie.
Rebekah Vardy
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Rebekah opened up to The Sun about her feelings towards her former friend Coleen, after it was revealed she was going on I’m A Celebrity.
She said: “Everything Coleen does is quite calculated.
“I don’t say this to be nasty, I say this because it’s an opinion of mine. She likes to be the victim.
“She’s been in this industry for a long time, she knows what she’s doing, she knows how to play the game. I think she’ll go into the jungle with a game plan.
“She knows how the public will perceive her. I think the public see her as a victim — a hard-working woman that’s endured a lot through a man’s infidelities and all of the stuff that he’s put her through.”
Coleen Rooney
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Following the end of the libel trial, Coleen released a Disney+ documentary called Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story.
On the three-part show, she detailed how she “worked out” it was Rebekah who was releasing her texts to the press.
Coleen also talked about why she chose to speak out online, rather than going directly to Rebekah.
She explained: “I was angry. I thought, ‘I’ve had enough of this. I’m going to do something about it.
“Part of me wanted to say something there and then, but the way it had been done to me, it was so sneaky. It was cheeky.
“No one had come to me to say, ‘We’re going to give this information to the press, are you OK about that?’
The Sun exclusively revealed how Disney bosses were forced to change the name of the doc, because Rebekah trademarked the name “Wagatha Christie”.
The documentary was originally going to be called Wagatha Christie: Coleen’s Story, but they had to drop the “Christie” in the headline.
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Coleen then talked about the trial again during her stint on I’m A Celebrity.
In the jungle, she was asked by her fellow campmates if she felt “scared” to send the original Instagram post, where she accused Rebekah of leaking stories.
Opening up, Coleen replied: “No, because I just didn’t think it would have the impact it did, because I was just that sick and tired of it, it was draining.
“That was my worst nightmare to go to court.
“I felt like it was like putting on a show for the whole world.”
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Are Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy friends?
Wayne and Jamie are said to have had a friendship beyond both playing for the England team.
Back in 2016, during the Euros, there had been reports of frostiness between the two players caused by Wayne’s annoyance at Rebekah’s high profile.
However, any rumours of a spat were squashed by manager Roy Hodgson who intervened in a question posed to Rooney about Mrs Vardy.
He said: “I will answer for Wayne. There are no problems between Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy.
“They are good friends and this is a salacious story that has been spun.”
Coleen Rooney’s famous Instagram post in FULL
Coleen’s bombshell post went viral and sparked a huge response among fans
Her original message read: “This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it.
“For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing The Sun newspaper of my private posts and stories.
“There has been so much information given to them about me, my friends, and my family – all without my permission or knowledge.
“After a long time of trying to figure out who it could be, for various reasons, I had a suspicion.
“To try and prove this, I came up with an idea, I blocked everyone from viewing Instagram except ONE account.
“(Those on my private account must have been wondering why I haven’t had stories on there for a while).
“Over the past five months, I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into the Sun newspaper.
“And you know what, they did! The story about gender selection in Mexico, the story about returning to TV and then the latest story about the basement flood in my new house.
“It’s been tough keeping it to myself and not making any comment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked, however, I had to. Now I know for certain which account/individual it’s come from.
“I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them.
“It’s……… Rebekah Vardy’s account.”