In a glorious pre-coronavirus time back in October 2019, local British gossip became major news. It was a good old fashioned WAG fight between two footballers’ wives, Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy. As it turns out, Coleen Rooney had noticed that some strange and personal information kept coming out about her in the British tabloids. She quickly deduced that someone with access to her personal-use/private Instagram had been selling her out. She set a trap, blocking everyone except her main suspect from viewing her Stories. She began feeding false information into this private account, setting bait for the suspect. The suspect took the bait and sold out Coleen Rooney to the Sun, over and over again.
In her public statement about the matter, Rooney’s final sentence is still considered one of the best gossip mic-drops ever, the WAG-equivalent of Hercule Poirot twisting his mustache and announcing the murderer: “It’s… Rebekah Vardy’s account.” A WAG sold out by another WAG, in a WAG trap! Vardy quickly issued her own hasty statement where she basically claimed that everybody around her has access to her Instagram and maybe some ex-assistant did it or something. I figured that we probably wouldn’t hear anything else about this WAGatha Christie drama, but no. Rebecca Vardy is now SUING Coleen Rooney.
Vardy has filed a defamation claim against Rooney in the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court, a court staffer confirmed to BuzzFeed News.
No other details on the lawsuit were immediately available. Representatives for the pair didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
But unnamed sources told the Sun — the newspaper at the center of the feud, remember! — that the two women had unsuccessfully attempted mediation and were prepared to spend more than $600,000 each to fight it out in court.
“Becky has made it clear to Coleen that she is deadly serious about clearing her name, and wants a full public apology,” a mysterious unnamed source told the tabloid. “It’s not about money. As far as Becky is concerned, she wants her costs and vindication.”
I really don’t understand Becky’s (!!) forcing this particular issue to its crisis. Coleen clearly did her homework and it was widely assumed that she was being advised or guided by lawyers for her actions. I feel like Coleen’s version is locked down. Now, Vardy can get up there and claim that some assistant had that kind of consistent access to her IG account, but honestly… Coleen will have the WAG receipts about who, what, when, where. If I was in Coleen Rooney’s place, I’d be like “sure, let’s go to trial, LMAO.” And they attempted mediation too! That was probably a juicy, scandalous mess as well. Shocked that Vardy didn’t leak the details of THAT to the Sun.
CONFIRMED: Rebekah Vardy is suing Coleen Rooney for libel! pic.twitter.com/oZ4ONd7AoO
— Daniel Wittenberg (@DannyWittenberg) June 23, 2020
Photos courtesy of WENN.
That was a strangely exciting, more innocent time. I followed that gossip with glee!
There is nothing more fun than watching WAGs with too much money and too much time on their hands. LOL! LOL!
To my fellow Brit CBers – Who are these two women viewed by the British public that follow WAGs? Inquiring Minds Want To Know!
Does she really have a case? I am not a lawyer, know nothing about the law, so please, feel very free to tell me I’m being completely clueless here. But even if, say, it really WAS the assistant, or a friend, or, hell, her husband, or someone else all that time… Coleen didn’t say “it was Rebekah Vardy”, she just specifically said “it was Rebekah Vardy’s ACCOUNT”. So… she actually never did say it was her! I don’t get this.
It will settle out in the early stages. And any settlement will be confidential to the parties, but RV gets to look like she has some kind of defence. Issuing proceedings is for restoration publicly albeit for the tune of £10,000 (issue fee in the HC). Libel and slander claims are notoriously difficult to prove in the English Courts because the burden of proof is on the Defendant (Coleen) to prove her accusations were true.
Ooh, ok, this is interesting, thank you! but I guess I still don’t understand why, because, looking at it… Coleen didn’t make any accusations about anyone personally, right? She just said it came from the account, and she seems to have taken the time and trouble to be able to prove it. Would she really have to settle anyway, when she didn’t actually name Vardy specifically as being the one leaking the stories?
@xdanix she didn’t make personal accusations in her initial IG but I don’t know what has happened since then. I agree with Cbitchy that it looked like lawyers were advising on Coleen’s initial IG post because its carefully framed not to be a personal accusation (albeit RVs lawyers can say its implied). But they may have got into a war of online words since then. If they haven’t got enough to substantiate a claim then Colleen’s lawyers can try and get it struck out at an early stage with costs payable. But either or, RV will have achieved an aim, she can say publicly it was struck out on a technicality. If I was advising from a PR stance I’d say its absolutely worth it, although query her lawyers if they are aware its for a PR aim. That’s vexatious litigation which is frowned upon by the people in wigs.
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that, that it might be based on something more than the ig post! And I can see what you mean, about it maybe being worth it even just to try, from a PR point of view. Thank you again Beth!
I have been reading celebrity gossip for YEARS and this is without a doubt my favorite story to have ever happened. It hit every single gossip nail on the head. Nothing will ever come close to replicating the goss perfection of WAGatha Christie.
I so agree, just reading this headline on the main page today hit me with such GLEE. It’s hilarious and juicy and amazing.
Oh god yes! Such an innocent time, such fun!
I’ll be watching this with popcorn at the ready.
This comment is perfection
I’m absolutely on board with this! Everything about the story fills me with glee.
I don’t think she has a case. Coleen didn’t accuse Rebekah of anything or said she did anything. If the court case doesn’t get thrown out I hope we get the full story.
Vardy is a nasty piece of work. Created big wedge between Jamie & his Dad. Not a fan or Colleen or Wayne but I believe Colleen here. This is much like HRC not saying a name & Tulsi Gabbard going batsh$t crazy because it touched a nerve & she filed a suit which she had since withdrawn. Expect the same here in 3, 2….
At least Becky knows how to spell libel? LOL
Coleen was very careful to say it was from Vardy’s *account*, not Vardy herself. Vardy tried to claim it must have been one of the multiple people with access to her account, which sorry Becky, but that’s still on you. If she thinks Coleen doesn’t have a library worth of receipts…you in danger, girl.
Hopefully a barrister asks Vardy why she feeds stories to the Sun, what info about her husband is she not wanting revealed? That is where the real juicy meat of this story is. Allegedly.
How will she explain that, of the few unverified accounts that she follows on Instagram, two of them are Simon Boyle and Andy Halls: the Sun journalists who wrote up the leaked stories in question?
Or why she has the same legal team that got Sun editor Rebekah Brooks off her phone-hacking charges, it is almost like Vardy is on The Sun newspaper payroll. Allegedly.
That’s exactly it. She was quick to say she doesn’t need the money so it would clearly be to bury another story. Does anyone remember DIRT that was out in like 2007? That opened my eyes to what presumably goes on behind the scenes for papers and magazines.
There is video of her husband racially abusing an Asian man, again to repeat myself, allegedly. She was (maybe still is) employed by The Sun as an “undercover” columnist for a piece called The Secret Wag. Quid pro quo deals were done for the video to be forgotten in exchange for insider gossip on other minor celebs and for Vardy to launch herself as a “star”.
Can’t stand either of them – they both live for this kind of drama and both LOVE the media attention.
Those poor other people on the list, having their names splashed about.
I don’t care it’s a public list, it’s rude not to black out the names.
$600,000 each to fight this nonsense in court??? Are these people okay???
Ugh, this makes me hate both these women and their husbands. I’m a half-hearted football fan, but Vardy’s wife turns me off Leicester City entirely.
What is a WAG?
My understanding, Brit slang for “wives and girlfriends” of their soccer players. And from what I read on the gossip sites, WAGs are basically the same type of stellar personalities as America’s Real Housewives.
The most notable WAGs in history are Colleen Rooney and Victoria Beckham! Honorable mention to Alex Curran (Gerrard’s wife)
WAG=Wife And Girlfriend (of usually a pro sports player)
Rooney should take this to trial. She’s got proof it came from the account and that’s all she said. Not all lawsuits have merit and Vardy needs to be hit with serious costs. There may even be enough to kill this at the summary judgment stage.