''Rebekah Vardy v Coleen Rooney'', which is popularly known as the Wagatha Christie trial, was a

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

case between

Rebekah Vardy Rebekah Vardy (''née'' Miranda, previously Nicholson; born 17 February 1982) is an English media personality married to the English football player Jamie Vardy. She was a contestant on '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!'' in 2017 and on ...

and

Coleen Rooney Coleen Mary Rooney ( McLoughlin; born 3 April 1986) is the wife of former English footballer Wayne Rooney. She is also a former television personality. Early life and family Coleen Mary McLoughlin was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, to Tony an ...

, two British wives of footballers (WAGs). The dispute began in 2019, when Rooney accused Vardy of leaking posts from her private

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account to the British newspaper '' The Sun''. In 2022, the dispute escalated to the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...

, in which Vardy sued Rooney for libel. On 29 July 2022, the court dismissed Vardy's claim on the basis that Rooney's statements were substantially true.

Background

In 2019,

, the wife of the footballer

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...

, suspected that posts from her private

account were being leaked to '' The Sun,'' a British

tabloid newspaper A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format. Etymology The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs We ...

that regularly publishes celebrity stories. To determine the source of the stories, Rooney posted fabricated stories and restricted access to them to

, the wife of footballer

Jamie Vardy Jamie Richard Vardy (''né'' Gill; born 11 January 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Leicester City. Regarded as one of the best strikers in the world, Vardy is known for his prolific goalscoring aided ...

. ''The Sun'' published these stories, which included claims that the basement of Rooney's house had flooded, that Rooney had visited Mexico to "make a baby girl", and that Rooney had planned to appear on ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

''. In late 2019, Rooney posted on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that Vardy had leaked the stories to the press. Rooney's tweet

went viral Viral phenomena or viral sensation are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the ter ...

and was dubbed "Wagatha Christie", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsWAG"– an acronym for the wives and girlfriends of professional athletes– and the name of

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

, a well-known writer of

whodunit A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the cl ...

crime fiction. Vardy responded on Twitter, denying the claims and implying her Instagram account had been hacked.

Libel trial

Rebekah Vardy attends England–Panama match at the 2018 FIFA World Cup

In June 2020, Vardy commenced action in the

English High Court The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...

to sue Rooney for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

. Defamation and libel cases are often not brought to the High Court; lawyers often advise against taking such cases to court because the reputational loss for the complainant is often high. At a preliminary High Court hearing on 19 November 2020, Justice Warby found Rooney had used defamatory words about Vardy. Neither Rooney nor Vardy were at the court. Vardy argued that the accusation over her Instagram account was false. Following the earlier ruling, it was Rooney's onus to prove Vardy was responsible for leaking stories to ''The Sun'' or to convince the judge that publication of the allegation was in the public interest. The trial commenced on 10 May 2022. During the proceedings, Rooney requested documents related to ''The Sun'' publisher News Group Newspapers and four ''The Sun'' journalists. The judge Justice Steyn allowed Vardy to use written summaries from these journalists as part of the case. The judge also asked for the mobile phones of Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt to be searched. Watt said she had accidentally dropped her phone into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

during a family holiday in Scotland. Vardy's copy of the messages were said to have been lost during a failed backup when Vardy's technology expert " orgotthe password which he used to encrypt the material". Rooney's lawyer David Sherborne said these were attempts to conceal incriminating evidence. Rooney's lawyers also cited the ''

Armory v Delamirie , (1722) 1 Strange 505, is a famous English case on personal property law and finder's rights. It is one of the first cases that established possession as a valuable property right and as evidence of ownership. The defendant in the case was Paul ...

'' case of 1722, which set a precedent stating that any deliberately missing evidence in a case should be assumed to be of the highest possible value, arguing that this also applies to electronic communications. Rooney alleged Vardy was the source of information for ''

The Sun on Sunday ''The Sun'' is a British Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper, published by the News UK#News Group Newspapers Ltd, News Group Newspapers division of News UK, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. It was found ...

'' "Secret Wag" feature, an anonymous column that discussed the private lives of others. Sherbourne questioned Vardy about her history of leaking information to the tabloid press, quoting from a 2004 interview in which Vardy detailed a sexual encounter with singer

Peter Andre Peter Andre (born Peter James Andrea, 27 February 1973) is an English-Australian singer and television personality of Australian descent. Andre gained popularity as a singer, best known for his singles "Mysterious Girl" and " Flava". He is als ...

. Vardy apologised, saying her former husband had forced her to participate in the interview and that her words had been misrepresented. The trial received international media coverage and ended on 19 May. Helen Lewis, a writer for the American magazine ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', called the case "the most ill-advised defamation case" since

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

's dispute with the Marquess of Queensberry. Lewis wrote that the trial represented "a clash between different ideas of celebrity", with Rooney guarding her privacy and Vardy "an avatar of a made-for-Instagram world, in which you are a fool if you do not monetise your personal life".

Judgment

On 29 July, Justice Steyn ruled in favour of Rooney. Steyn said that Vardy had regularly passed information about Rooney to the press, was critical of missing evidence from Vardy and called her evidence "manifestly inconsistent with the contemporaneous documentary evidence, evasive or implausible" on "many occasions". Steyn also said ''The Sun on Sunday'' "Secret Wag" column "is highly likely... o have beena journalistic construct rather than a person", and that "the evidence connecting Ms Vardy to this column is thin". Vardy faced estimated legal costs of approximately £3million and her reputation was damaged. She said that she was "extremely sad and disappointed at the decision" and that she had been the subject of "vile abuse" since the trial began. She told

Kate McCann Kate McCann (born 1988/1989) is a British journalist. She has been the political editor of TalkTV since April 2022. McCann was previously a political correspondent for Sky News between 2018 and 2022 and ''The Daily Telegraph''s senior politic ...

of TalkTV that the media coverage of the case had been sexist and misogynistic, and she was later said to be experiencing

panic attacks Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear and discomfort that may include palpitations, sweating, chest pain or chest discomfort, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, numbness, confusion, or a feeling of impending doom or of losing ...

and

post-traumatic stress Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

as a result of the trial. In her press statement, Rooney said that she was pleased but did not believe the case should have gone to court when the money could have been better spent elsewhere. Rooney also said that she was not seeking any compensation for the case. At a subsequent hearing, Justice Steyn ordered Vardy to pay 90% of Rooney's costs with the first installment assessed at £800,000 to be paid by mid-November 2022. The full amount is expected to be approximately £1,500,000.

Media

In July 2022,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

announced a two-part television drama, '' Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama'', based on the events of the trial. It was directed by Oonagh Kearney and recreates courtroom scenes using verbatim court transcripts against analysis in media. The cast includes

Natalia Tena Natalia Gastiain Tena (born 1 November 1984) is a British actress and musician. She is known for playing Nymphadora Tonks in the ''Harry Potter'' film series (2007-2011), and the wildling Osha in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011-2 ...

as Vardy and Chanel Cresswell as Rooney.

Michael Sheen Michael Christopher Sheen OBE (born 5 February 1969) is a Welsh actor, television producer and political activist. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage role ...

(also an executive producer) played barrister David Sherborne and Simon Coury played Rooney's opposing barrister

Hugh Tomlinson Hugh Richard Edward Tomlinson KC (born January 1954 in Leeds) is a barrister in England and Wales, an English translator of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and a founding member of Matrix Chambers. He is a specialist in media and information ...

. Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy were played by Dion Lloyd and Marci Nagyszokolyai. The drama aired on 21 and 22 December 2022.

References

High Court of Justice cases 2022 in British law English defamation case law Rooney family (England) {{DISPLAYTITLE:Wagatha Christie

Background

Libel trial

Judgment

Media

See also

References