The Wagatha Christie libel trial has reached a conclusion, with Rebekah Vardylosing her case against Coleen Rooney.
Rebekah herself took the case to court after Coleen accused her of leaking information from her private Instagram account to the press in October 2019.
One of the most excruciating parts of the case involved the release of Vardy's foul-mouthed WhatsApp messages in which she blasted Coleen as a 'c***' and 'stupid cow'.
In her ruling, the judge Mrs Justice Karen Steyn said it was “likely” that Rebekah's agent at the time, Caroline “undertook the direct act” of passing the information to The Sun.
She added: “Nonetheless, the evidence … clearly shows, in my view, that Mrs Vardy knew of and condoned this behaviour, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt."
As the case comes to an end, we look back at nine key exchanges between Rebekah Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt.
The ‘Photoshop girl’
Giving evidence, Rebekah was asked about the so-called ‘Photoshop girl’ conversation with Caroline where they discuss edited photos.
An image appears to have been sent to Caroline by Rebekah, but the trial heard that, due to issues with uploading Whatsapp data, all the image files have been lost.
Rebekah says to Watt that the pictures “made her fume” as the editing software Photoshop can make you look “five sizes smaller”.
Giving evidence, Rebekah said that, when she told Caroline to “leak a story”, she was talking about a report on “body positivity”.
‘Lads are fuming’
The court saw messages between Rebekah and Caroline in which they discuss Jamie Vardy’s former Leicester City team mate Riyad Mahrez “not turning up to training”.
Vardy tells Watt: “Lads are fuming”.
An article in The Sun was later published stating Mahrez’s teammates had “turned on him” which David Sherborne, for Coleen, said no other media outlet had.
Vardy said this had nothing to do with her.
She told the court the story was based on information already in the public domain.
World Cup WAG dinner
A photograph of a number of WAGs at a restaurant in Russia during the 2018 World Cup was discussed at the trial.
In a Whatsapp exchange between Caroline and Rebekah, the pair discuss how Rebekah is getting to the restaurant and having a photographer get a “good pic of us walking down”.
Rebekah later messages Watt: “F*** I made everyone go outside for a pic and the pap was there. Looks like I tipped him off now”.
After the photo is taken, Caroline tells Rebekah she cannot identify all the girls in the picture to which Rebekah replies: “Fern, Millie, Gemma, Annabel, Shannon, Megan, Annie”.
Giving evidence, Rebekah said she had arranged with Caroline for a photographer to take photographs of her as she was walking down for dinner and not with the other women.
Asked if Caroline was coming up with excuses for her to give to the other WAGs to 'buy time' so the photographer could send his pictures to the press, Rebekah said: "Well it reads like that but I don’t remember it like that and to be honest I had been drinking quite a lot that day.”
The 'affair' story
A redacted version of a conversation between Caroline and Rebekah was shown to the court as alleged evidence of them leaking a story about other parties to The Sun.
Rebekah tells Caroline: “Omg have you seen how badly F is behaving x.
“Leak the story about her s******* G behind H’s back x”.
The court heard the pair are referring to a female celebrity who had cheated on her husband with a footballer.
Giving evidence, Vardy said: “I was just joking about that one.”
Coleen’s Honda
The court heard a story appeared in The Sun about a car crash Coleen was alleged to have had while in America in January 2019.
On January 23, Caroline messaged Rebekah asking her client to confirm whether, on the previous day, she had told her that Coleen had crashed her Honda. Rebekah replies: “She defo has”.
On January 25, Caroline then tells Rebekah a journalist at The Sun is trying to do a story on the crash and she had told him she is “100% confident”.
Later that day, Caroline sends a picture to Rebekah and asks if it is the picture Coleen posted, to which Rebekah replies: “Yeah that’s it! Different pic though x”.
The Instagram picture which made Rebekah believe Coleen had a crash was shown to the court.
Coleen told the court she had not had a crash but that a lorry had scraped the side of her car.
In court, Mr Sherborne said: “What Ms Watt is doing is passing on the information to him, which he knows is coming from you.”
Vardy said: “Mr Halls, as far as I know, already had the information, he already had the picture. I confirmed she had definitely crashed it.”
On January 27, the pair are discussing a post on Coleen’s Twitter in which she talks about the story being leaked from her Instagram, to which Caroline tells Rebekah: “And it wasn’t someone she trusted. It was me”.
Coleen 'unfollows' Rebekah
The court heard Coleen unfollowed Rebekah in February 2019 after becoming more suspicious that she was leaking information from her Instagram account.
In a series of Whatsapp messages, Caroline told Rebekah to message Coleen in “a few weeks” to ask her why.
Rebekah tells Caroline: “That c*** needs to get over herself! X” and “That’s falling out material x”.
She also says she is “offended” Coleen suspects her of leaking stories, adding: “I mean ffs Dawn f****** ward is still on there x”. Coleen later told the court that she had ruled out Dawn Ward, star of Real Housewives of Cheshire, as being responsible for the leaks as she had known her for years.
The pair also discuss how to message Coleen and ask why she had unfollowed her, including suggesting a booker at Loose Women asked if she wanted to come on the show.
Giving evidence, Coleen said it “knocked me sick” when she saw Rebekah had mentioned her sister Rosie, who suffered from Rett Syndrome, who died aged 14 in 2013.
Vardy denied using the anniversary of Rosie’s death as ‘the peg’ to message Rooney about the unfollowing.
The ‘Gender Selection’ post
Coleen said she posted a fake story to her Instagram in April 2019 suggesting she was looking into gender selection.
After the story was posted Rebekah messaged Caroline: “Coleen’s Instagram. Wonder if they are going for baby 5 x”.
She then follows up to say: “Maybe she’s just put it to see if anyone gives it to the media x”.
In cross-examination, Mr Sherborne asked Rebekah: “You knew Caroline was looking through Mrs Rooney’s account to see what Mrs Rooney was putting up there, yes or no?”
Vardy said: “Yes. Of course she saw something on her Instagram, that’s undeniable because it says it there, but she has never said once that she is stalking or monitoring her account.”
Danny Drinkwater arrest
Another story Rebekah is accused of leaking to the press is regarding the arrest of Chelsea player Danny Drinkwater for drink-driving in April 2019.
Rebekah tells Caroline: “Story… Danny Drinkwater arrest x”.
She then goes on to tell Caroline he “crashed his car drunk with 2 girls in it” and that he had “only just been let out the cells”.
Caroline then informs Rebekah “Just sent it to Andy Halls” but then, a few seconds later, said someone had “leaked it from the police station”.
Asked about the messages in court, Rebekah said the information was already on social media and the message about payment was “fleeting” and “not a serious comment”.
She said: “It was something I felt was dangerous and at the time I didn’t care if the information came out or not. And it was rightly something he should have to deal with.”
Mr Sherborne asked her: “Why are you fuming that you didn't give it to Caroline earlier?”
Vardy said: “I don't know why I was fuming I didn't give it to Caroline earlier. It wasn't because The Sun already had it for their front page.”
The reveal tweet
Messages between Rebekah and Caroline minutes after Coleen posted her allegations that Rebekah had been leaking stories from her private Instagram account were shown to the court.
In them, Caroline tells her: “Message her now and ask what the f*** this is x” and Rebekah says: “Wow that’s war”.
Caroline then suggests what to say to Coleen and, after around 20 minutes, sends Rebekah a message that she will eventually post on her social media channels in reply to Coleen.
Later that day, Rebekah sends Caroline a number of images and says: “Jesus Christ I hope she’s f***ing happy now x”.
She later adds: “I can’t just sit back and let her get away with this.”
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