What does Wagatha Christie mean – and who coined the phrase?
The ‘Wagatha Christie’ debacle is soon to come to an end as a verdict is due in the infamous trial – here’s what ‘Wagatha Christie’ means and who coined the phrase
A social media post from Coleen almost three years ago sparked the legal battle
It’s been almost three years since the WAG drama of the century unravelled and captured the attention of the nation.
After millions of pounds spent in lawyers fees and a dramatic trial, the world will soon finally find out who has won the so-called “Wagatha Christie” libel case.
The long-awaited verdict is due today after two of the UK’s biggest footballers’ wives, Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, took their rivalry to court in May 2022.
Vardy is attempting to sue Rooney for libel after Coleen accused her of leaking fake stories about her that she had purposely posted to her private Instagram account.
The accusations have been strongly denied by Vardy, but in the explosive court case Rooney argued that her post about the leaks was “substantially true”.
As the saga will soon finally come to an end, here’s everything you need to know about the Wagatha Christie case and how it got its name.
What is the meaning of Wagatha Christie?
“Wagatha Christie” refers to an explosive 2019 celebrity scandal that enthralled the nation.
Coleen Rooney, who is the wife of footballer Wayne Rooney, accused Rebekah Vardy – wife of footballer Jamie Vardy – of leaking private stories about her to the British press.
Rooney made the public accusation after an intense investigation that she detailed on Twitter.
She explained that she had been growing suspicious that someone from her personal Instagram had been passing on stories to The Sun, so decided to do her own digging into who it could be.
Coleen launched a sting operation that saw her make up fake stories, post them to her private Instagram and restrict who could see the stories to narrow down the likely culprit.
The fake stories made their way into the press and, in a dramatic reveal of the leak, Coleen famously claimed “it’s………..Rebekah Vardy’s account”.
The shocking scandal took the internet by storm and quickly went viral, and Rooney’s detective work led to her being branded “Wagatha Christie”.
The term is a play on words that is a mashup of the famous detective writer Agatha Christie and the acronym WAG – which stands for “wives and girlfriends” of famous footballers.
While originally being used as nickname for Coleen, the term is now commonly used to refer to the entire case.
Who coined the term Wagatha Christie?
Comedian Dan Atkinson has been credited with coining the ‘Wagatha Christie’ name
Image:
( Dover Express)
The Wagatha Christie name quickly caught on and ended up going viral on Twitter at the time, too.
There were many posts using the phrase at the time but it seems that the original mind behind the witty pun was comedian Dan Atkinson.
Roughly 45 minutes after Coleen went live with her sensational accusation, Atkinson tweeted four words: “ Coleen Rooney : WAGagtha Christie.”
Sine then, the tweet has had over 20,000 likes and 3,000 retweets.
Users loved the joke and it’s gone on to become the common phrase used when talking about the scandal.
Writing about its popularity for The Guardian, Atkinson said: “Some reactions were, in my opinion, over-enthusiastic. Someone said I should be knighted.
“Another said they would ‘legit marry’ whoever came up with Wagatha Christie.
“One recommended I should be made prime minister, but I think recent events have demonstrated that electing a PM purely on the basis of finding them amusing can be unwise.”
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