Wagatha Christie one year on - latest on Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy's explosive WAG war
On October 9, 2019 social media went into meltdown after Coleen Rooney accused the Instagram account belonging to Rebekah Vardy of leaking fake stories about her to the press
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Today marks the one year anniversary of Wagatha Christie - an explosive WAG war like no other.
On October 9, 2019 social media went into meltdown after Wayne Rooney's wife Coleen, 34, accused the Instagram account belonging to Jamie Vardy's wife Rebekah Vardy, 38, of leaking fake stories about her to the press.
In an explosive social media statement - that has gone down in showbiz history - Coleen said she had suspected a leak after information from her private Instagram account - made for just friends and family - began leaking online.
Coleen was dubbed Wagatha Christie by Twitter users after unveiling the detective work she'd done in order to draw her conclusions.
And a year on from the drama kicking off, the women are no closer to making peace as Rebekah - who was pregnant with her fifth child at the time and strenuously denied the claims - is suing Coleen. They are set to face each other in the High Court.
Here is a look at the latest Wagatha Christie news.
At the start of October Rebekah announced as one of the celebrity contestants on ITV's Dancing On Ice, and during an appearance on GMB to share the news, she opened up about the fall-out with Coleen.
She said she'd been left with no choice but to take Coleen to court as they couldn't "settle things amicably" and that she wanted to "clear her name."
Days later, reports emerged claiming that Coleen joked about Rebekah signing up for the ITV reality series
An insider told The Sun : "Neither one is prepared to back down. Becky’s decision to do Dancing on Ice is understandable from her point of view. She sees it as an opportunity to prove to people that she’s not who they think she is.
"She wants them to see her not as a snake or a grass as she’s been labelled, but a devoted mum and wife."
The insider's comments came days after Coleen submitted a 55-page defence last week in support of her allegation against Rebekah's Instagram account.
In the document seen by the Mirror, Coleen accuses Vardy of “habitually” leaking stories to the press in return for glowing coverage.
The document filed October 2 at London’s High Court in response to Vardy's libel action, also claims that Vardy:
Set up pap shots of WAGS during the 2018 World Cup without their knowledge and deliberately sat behind Coleen in the stands at Euro 2016 to maximise her own publicity and her guests “abused” FA staff when told to move.
Other claims include that Becky was the “Secret Wag” columnist who leaked private information about the wives of well-known footballers and that she was accused by Sarah Harding of taking intrusive photographs of her without her consent at the National Television Awards in 2018.
Another claim is that Vardy had form for leaking private information after once claiming in an interview how Peter Andre was “hung like a small chipolata”.
The defence went into detail about the fake “Sting Operation stories” which she says Coleen planted - including one about her basement flooding, her desire to return to TV and wanting to try gender selection for her next baby.
She supplied three pictures in the cache of legal papers to back up her claim.
In one, a picture of an airline seat can be seen as Coleen considers finding out about ‘gender selection’, while in another she can been seen in a selfie, considering her future TV career.
A third shows a bottle of Cloudy Bay white wine and a scrunched face emoji after Coleen told how her basement was flooded.
The legal documents seen by the Mirror also allege other stories that Coleen believes were leaked to the press by Vardy from her private Instagram account.
These included a post in September 2017 of photographs of her three children and the text “no matter where I am they always follow me, and I hope that lasts forever”.
A day later a story appeared alleging “Wayne Rooney fears his marriage is over as pregnant wife Coleen storms out of their £4m mansion – and takes the kids with her”.
In October 2017, Coleen posted a picture of Wayne and their first three children with the caption “We love you so much Dad!! Happy birthday…thank you for all you do for us!!! Lots of love Kai Klay and Kit xxxx”
The next day an article was published saying that “Wayne Rooney is back at home – and in bed with Coleen – as she shares snaps with pals celebrating Halloween together”
The Sun also published a story about a car crash which she claims was obtained via her private account. The papers say how Coleen suspected Vardy at the time and deleted her as a follower on Instagram.
“On 3 March 2019, the Claimant sent the Defendant a WhatsApp message, asking why she had been deleted,” the papers add.
She then allowed Vardy to follow her again. But the leaks continued with another story she claims was obtained from her private account – about Coleen riding a bike at Soho Farmhouse, which subsequently appeared in the press.
The papers claim that in return for this information, Vardy received glowing coverage in the paper and could “financially exploit her public profile”.
On October 3 reports emerged that Coleen has reportedly vowed she "won't be bullied" by Rebekah, after the wife of footballer Jamie urged her to face her in court sooner.
Sources close to Coleen said she is ready to fight every step of the way in their upcoming libel trial and is not going to be intimidated by rival WAG Rebekah.
Denying Coleen is "dragging her heels" over facing Vardy in court, a source told the Sun the wife of former England star Wayne is "ready to fight and confident" that she will come out on top.
“Coleen changed her legal team and they are compiling the evidence and preparing to put forward the strongest case possible," they claimed.
“Coleen has said she won’t be bullied by strong-arm tactics, nor will she back down. Becky’s team are trying to flex their muscles.
"But they wanted a fight so Coleen’s going to bring them one,” they insisted.
In July documents, Rebekah's lawyers claim that the stress caused by Coleen's actions left Becky fearing for her unborn baby.
She also claims that she suffered panic attacks and was unable to leave her home in the wake of the claims.
Rebekah reportedly claims that Rooney's wife made her a 'scapegoat' for stories appearing in the press, when she says it was Coleen herself or her friends that were leaking the gossip.
The court documents reportedly show Rebekah "has deliberately been made a scape goat (sic) by the Defendant (Coleen) for past 'leaked' stories".
Rebekah also alleges that stories about the Rooneys "in particular about their marriage, which have in fact come from the Defendant's friends, at times even with the Defendant's approval".
The paper also states that Dan Wootton had revealed on talkRADIO on October 19 last year that he believed Coleen had "manipulated the media to tell stories about her own life".
He also states that "lots of other things around the Rooneys" that had come directly from friends of Coleen including some told 'with her (Coleen's) approval'."
Rebekah also claims that Wootton said that none had ever come from "any of the Vardys".
It has been reported that Rebekah believes that Coleen's public finger pointing on her Instagram had "gravely injured her reputation," and had "caused her enormous distress and very extreme embarrassment."
She goes on to describe the level of abuse she received on social media in the wake of Coleen's claims, with many wishing ill on her unborn baby.
Judge Mr Justice Nicklin has ordered that Coleen and Rebekah have a preliminary hearing within weeks.
He said a preliminary trial will decide the “natural and ordinary” meaning of Coleen’s social media posts.
In the court order, dated September 17, he states: “It is ordered by consent that there be a trial of the preliminary issue of the natural and ordinary meaning of the words complained of.”
He said the half-day trial would be heard by a specialist media and communication judge after November 15.
Coleen shocked fans a year ago, when she took to social media to post: "This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it......"
Her statement read: "For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing THE SUN newspaper of my private posts and stories.
"There has been so much information given to them about me, my friends and my family - all without my permission or knowledge.
"After a long time of trying to figure out who it could be, for various reasons, I had a suspicion.
"To to and prove this, I came up with an idea. I blocked everyone from viewing my Instagram stories except ONE account. (Those on my private account must have been wondering why I haven't had stories on there for a while.)"
She added: "Over the past five months I have posted a series of false stories to see it they made their way into the Sun newspaper. And you know what, they did! The story about gender selection in Mexico, the story about returning to TV and then the latest story about the basement flooding in my new house.
"It's been tough keeping it to myself and not making any comment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked, however I had to. Now I know for certain which account / individual it's come from.
"I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them."
Her explosive statement ended: "It's....... Rebekah Vardy's account."
Rebekah took to Instagram later that same day to pen a statement of her own, telling her followers: "Can’t believe I’m even having to write this. I’m pregnant & on holiday & am at a loss to why she would do this. I’m now having to take legal advice as I can’t deal with this stress myself when I’m this pregnant."
She suggested that the leaks were coming from someone else who had access to her account.
Her statement to Coleen read: "As I have just said to you on the phone, I wish you had called me if you thought this. I never speak to anyone about you as various journalists who have asked me to over the years can vouch for.
"If you thought this was happening you could have told me & I could have changed my passwords to see if it stopped. Over the years various people have had access to my insta & just this week I found I was following people I didn't know and have never followed myself.
"I'm not being funny but I don't need the money, what would I gain from selling stories on you? I liked you a lot Coleen & I'm so upset that you have chosen to do this, especially when I'm heavily pregnant.
"I'm disgusted that I'm even having to deny this. You should have called me the first time this happened"
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