Wagatha Christie: A Year On

It seems hard to believe that it was a year since an ellipsis sent shockwaves throughout the UK. Anyone who had access to the internet on October 9 2019 will probably remember reading the iconic line: ‘It’s………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.’

You probably don’t need a refresher on what happened at the start of the war of the WAGs, but, in case you do: Coleen - wife of footballer Wayne Rooney - suspected one of her friends was selling stories about her to The Sun. (Sources for celebrity news stories are, after all, often incredibly close to the star in question.) But Coleen, ‘for various reasons’, had a suspicion about who was drip feeding the tabloids personal information. So, in order to catch the culprit, she created innocuous fake stories - like the basement flooding in her house and going to Mexico for gender selection - and posted them to her close friends list on Instagram, which she had made sure only Rebekah - wife of footballer Jamie Vardy - was able to view.

Following her Sherlock Holmes style investigation, she posted her findings to Twitter and Instagram - igniting Twitter meltdown, screams of laughter in offices, and WhatsApp group chats inundated with laughing face emojis.

It took less than an hour for Vardy - who was on holiday in Dubai - to reply to what was quickly and cleverly dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’. Rebekah said she wished Coleen had called her before publicly accusing her, and said she was devastated that she had chosen to make the accusations while she was ‘heavily pregnant’. ‘I’m not being funny but I don’t need the money, what would I gain from selling stories on you?’ she retorted.

Almost as instantly as Coleen’s statement was posted, it quickly became one of the biggest UK celebrity news stories of the decade. It had everything. Footballers’ Wives drama with a British twist. It was scandalous - but most importantly, because the story wasn’t tragic, we could all laugh about it. People were obsessed with the fact that Coleen was jibing at a WAG which we all knew from I’m A Celebrity back in 2017 - and, probably more so at the fact she was getting the British tabloids to print fake stories.

It really did capture the British public’s imagination. Keira Knightley was asked at a press junket by Heat magazine if she would play Coleen in a film, to which she said yes. People even dressed up as Coleen for Halloween, complete with placards declaring ‘It’s ……....Rebekah Vardy’s account.’ Coleen was asked to solve everything from people’s cheating dramas to Brexit. Channel 4’s Krishan Guru Murthy even asked if she could find the ‘source’ at No10.

The story obviously rumbled on. Vardy has always denied that it was, in fact, her account, saying a number of people shared her password. Following the scandal, she gave an interview to the Daily Mail, where she dropped the iconic line that arguing with Coleen was like ‘fighting with a pigeon’. In February this year, she appeared on Loose Women, bringing her baby Olivia (who she was 7 months pregnant with at the time of the scandal) and sobbed on air about how the ordeal was one of the toughest things she’s ever had to go through.

A few months later, in May, Vardy said she would settle for nothing less than a public apology from Coleen - and then it was revealed the next month that she had launched a £1 million libel lawsuit in the High Court to clear her name. But Coleen wasn’t going to go down without a fight - she hired David Sherborne, who you might remember as Johnny Depp’s barrister from his recent libel battle with The Sun and ex-wife Amber Heard, after the paper branded him a ‘wife beater.’

Over a year later and Roodunit is still alive and well. Rebekah hasn’t shied away from the public eye. Maybe in an effort to overhaul her image, or maybe because she just really likes skating (or money, fair enough), she is appearing on Sunday night family favourite television show Dancing On Ice later this year. Since the announcement, she’s said that she has tried to sort things ‘amicably’ between her former friend.

However, today, Rebekah's lawyer told the court - at the first preliminary hearing - that the case against Coleen was brought only as a last resort to 'vindicate her reputation'. They also added that the allegations against Rebekah are too serious to be called 'Wag wars' as Rebekah has 'suffered widespread hostility and abuse'.

Coleen, Rebekah, we thank you for twelve months of escapism. The drama continues……....

READ MORE: Our Footballers Wives Dreams Come True As Coleen Rooney Accuses Rebekah Vardy Of Selling Stories About Her