Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy have returned to court to settle their famous Wagatha Christie dispute and the drama has had us all in a chokehold. From Peter Andre’s manhood getting dragged into Vardy’s testimony to Rooney being compared to a pigeon (‘You can tell it that you are right and it is wrong but it’s still going to shit in your hair’) you really couldn’t have written a more dramatic saga.
But even if you’re the libel trial’s biggest devotee (also occasionally called ‘The Scousetrap’) there are still some burning questions that have gone unanswered. So, we’ve done the research for the intel everyone’s after. Keep reading for revelations.
What Instagram posts did Coleen Rooney share in court?
The vital clues that led Wagatha herself to her famous snare. Coleen suspected that Rebekah was leaking information about her to the press. In an attempt to prove her hunch, Coleen carried out a month-long 'sting operation' in which she used her Instagram Stories to post fake scenarios and see which ones ended up in the news.
A post allegedly ‘revealing’ the Rooneys had suffered flooding at their £20million Cheshire mansion, which led to an article published by The Sun, had only been seen by Vardy’s account.
The court heard that the post showed a bottle of wine along with the caption: ‘Needed after today… flood in the basement of our new house… when it all seemed to be going so well.’
One post saw Rooney claiming that she was travelling to Mexico to look into gender selection, with an exclusive story published by the Sun four months later outlining Rooney’s ‘desperate bid to have a baby girl’.
Saying she was alerted to the story by one of her son’s football coaches, she told the court: ‘There was no crash.’
Rooney had captioned a shot of a United Airlines screen and tray table, from the point of view of the seat: ‘Let’s go and see what this gender selection is all about.’
Monday’s hearing featured evidence from Rooney’s former PR representative Rachel Monk about her interactions with The Sun newspaper in relation to stories about the footballer’s wife.
On one occasion, according to her witness statement, Monk told a Sun journalist that the story about her client going to a gender selection clinic in Mexico was ‘bonkers’.
Another post, which was true, showed damage to Rooney’s Honda after a collision, but the WAG, who is married to Derby County manager Wayne Rooney –who gave evidence today – denied she’d been in a ‘crash’.
Rooney told the court she was left ‘fuming’ about a Sun article in January 2019, after she made the post, about her allegedly being involved in a car crash in the US when she lived there.
What did Wayne Rooney say when questioned in court?
Wayne Rooney was called up in Coleen's defence by her legal team and gave evidence on Tuesday. He told the court he'd spoken to Jamie Vardy about Rebekah's behaviour (which she denies) and that is Jamie wanted to relay that back to his wife that's '100% his business'.
When the judge asked Wayne why he didn't intervene in the Wagatha drama to tell Vardy his wife was upset, he replied: 'My wife is an independent woman... I don’t want to be in court. I know my wife doesn’t want to be in court, I’ve watched my wife over the last two and a half years really struggle, become a different woman, a different wife.
'Whatever judgement comes from this case we can go on and live our lives.'
Why did Rebekah Vardy leave court early on Monday?
Rebekah left her own libel trial before court ended on Monday as she had to attend an 'appointment'. Her team didn't specify what the appointment was for but Vardy left while the rest of the court took a short break during the afternoon.
'Mrs Vardy has had to leave for an appointment,' her barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC told the court.
Why is Coleen Rooney wearing a boot to court?
Coleen Rooney’s courtroom wardrobe has been sleek. From a monochrome Zara dress to a sharp Mugler blazer, everyone has been praising her fits. But her choice of footwear has raised some eyebrows as she stepped out in one Gucci loafer and one medical boot.
According to reports, Rooney had a fall at her home in March and injured her foot so is now striding around in an air boot for the next few weeks. A source told reporters she had been in a lot of pain and went to hospital after the accident.
‘[Coleen is] wearing an Aircast boot, which basically support the ankle joint after an injury,’ GP Dr Luke Kane-Laverack told Grazia. 'This could be anything from a small fracture of the bones in the ankle, foot or lower leg or a bad ankle spain. It provides extra support to the joint whilst healing occurs.’
Why isn’t Jamie Vardy at court with Rebekah?
While Wayne Rooney has been steadfastly hand in hand with Coleen as she arrives at the trial (he even held her handbag in the courtroom), Rebekah’s footballer husband Jamie Vardy has been nowhere to be seen.
But, unlike Wayne who retired in 2021, Jamie still has his football career to juggle with his wife’s libel trial and has been unable to attend due to diary conflicts. It doesn’t seem that Jamie’s play has been affected by the drama as he scored two of the three goals Leicester City secured against Norwich on day two of the trial.
Who is the Wagatha Christie courtroom sketch artist?
There’s been a lot of chat about the courtroom drawings coming from the Wagatha Christie trial. While some have praised the accurate depiction of Coleen’s proud raised chin and Rebekah’s no nonsense low bun, others have questioned why Wayne Rooney looks like a ‘potato’.
So, who is responsible for these masterpieces? A courtroom artist called Priscilla Coleman has been sketching the stunning court scenes and has been doing the job for the last 20 years. Coleman has worked for ITN and numerous newspapers over the years and covered landmark trials including Rose West, Harold Shipman, Ian Huntley, the Hutton inquiry and the Guinness trial.
Why can’t lawyers just ask The Sun who leaked stories about Coleen Rooney?
Journalists aren’t obliged to give up their sources in court because it sets a legal precedent that won’t protect source anonymity. As the Editor’s Code says: ‘Journalists must protect their confidential sources if the Press is to safeguard the interests of society.’
It’s also a journalist’s legal right to protect their source. Clause 10 of the 1981 Contempt of Court Act says: ‘No court may require a person to disclose, nor is any person guilty of contempt of court for refusing to disclose, the source of information contained in a publication for which he is responsible, unless it be established to the satisfaction of the court that disclosure is necessary in the interests of justice or national security or for the prevention of disorder or crime.’
Why isn't Caroline Watt being questioned?
Caroline Watt is Rebekah Vardy’s agent and also the person who dropped a phone containing vital evidence into the North Sea. Watt has been accused by Rooney’s lawyers of doing Vardy’s ‘dirty work’ and, on day three of the trial, Vardy admitted she was aware her agent had forwarded private information about Rooney to a journalist at The Sun.
Watt hasn’t been present at the trial because the judge refused to add her to the case ‘on the basis that the application has been made too late and would delay the main libel trial by up to a year, which would be unfair on Vardy,’ the Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, the Independent has said reported that Watt ‘will not be called on to give oral evidence during the trial as she is said to be in a “fragile state” and deemed “not fit” to provide evidence.’
When is the Wagatha Christie trial over?
The Wagatha Christie trial will end on Wednesday after a seven-day long public court hearing. The decision will then be made by the judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, over whether Coleen Rooney's claims that Rebekah Vardy leaked stories about her to the press were 'substantially true' or whether her accusations were unfounded and damaging to Vardy's reputation.
Because Vardy's case against Rooney is civil, there's no jury involved in the case. So, after the trial comes to an end on Wednesday, Judge Steyn will review the evidence and give a verdict at a later (unspecified) date.
How much will the loser of the Wagatha Christie trial have to pay?
Whoever loses the case will be handed a legal libel bill that is currently estimated to total at £3million. Both women have already spent thousands on legal fees. When they last went to court in 2021, the two-day hearing cost Rooney £163,926 and it was reported in November that Rooney’s total bill was around £537,000 while Vardy’s was £838,000.
‘It’s all to play for but at the end of the day no one is a winner, other than the lawyers,’ a source told the Mirror. ‘It remains to be seen, also, what other bombshells will be served up…and which woman will take the bigger PR hit.’