Coleen Rooney has disclosed further details of her investigation into the leaking of private information, which led to the high-profile 'Wagatha Christie' libel case. In a new interview with BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Rooney explained how she narrowed down her suspicions to Rebekah Vardy, wife of footballer Jamie Vardy, before publicly accusing her in 2019.
Rooney said she suspected Vardy due to her existing relationship with The Sun newspaper, which had published exclusive stories about Rooney. She also noted that her friends and family from Liverpool would not work with The Sun because of the city's long-standing boycott of the paper over its coverage of the Hillsborough disaster. 'So obviously that eliminated a lot of other people from my followers,' Rooney said.
To confirm her suspicions, Rooney posted fake stories on her private Instagram account and gradually restricted access until only Vardy's account could view them. When those stories appeared in The Sun, Rooney publicly accused Vardy of leaking. Vardy denied the claims and sued for libel but lost the case last year, with a judge ruling Rooney's accusation was 'substantially true'. Vardy was ordered to pay 90% of Rooney's legal costs.
Rooney also revealed that she had briefly blocked Vardy on Instagram, prompting Vardy to message her asking about it. Rooney then unblocked her and continued posting fake stories. 'I did more and more fake posts, which, some of them then did go on to be in the newspaper,' she said.
