Coleen Rooney tells court Rebekah Vardy monitored and followed her

Coleen Rooney has claimed Rebekah Vardy and her agent “monitored and followed me” as she accused them of sending “bad” messages about her.

rs Rooney, the wife of former England player Wayne Rooney, posed as the second week of the ‘Wagatha Christie’ defamation trial in the High Court in London, after posting on social media in 2019 accusing Ms Vardy of: Stories to the Tabloids.

Ms Rooney (36) told the court that Ms Vardy (40),
The wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt sent “nasty and inappropriate” messages about her as they discussed her private Instagram posts.

The court has previously heard that Ms Vardy and Ms Watt, who is no longer involved in the court case due to ill health, exchanged lengthy WhatsApp messages calling Ms Rooney a “nasty B****”.

“There is no need to talk about me or my Instagram, especially with Caroline Watt,” Ms Rooney told the court.

“I don’t know what Caroline Watt looks like — I’ve never spoken to her, never met her.”

She continued, “I’m the complete opposite of what they described.

“I’m not a bad person; the words they used are just completely wrong and there’s no reason for it.

“I didn’t do anything for them to talk about, monitor me and follow me.”

The court heard Ms Rooney hatched her plan to have stab surgery after she tried to unfollow Ms Vardy from her private Instagram account, but her colleague Wag noticed and texted her to ask why ask.

Ms Rooney said the two were “not good friends” and if someone hadn’t followed her she would “probably just forget about it and not message the person”, adding: “I really wouldn’t have felt that bothered.”

She added: “I found it suspicious. Obviously I had suspicions in other ways, so this only added to the suspicions I had.

Ms Rooney admitted telling a “fib” and told Ms Vardy it’s probably her children who are always playing with her phone.

After re-following Ms Vardy on her private account, Ms Rooney began posting fake stories and changed the settings so that only Ms Vardy’s account could see them.

Over the next few months, three of the stories appeared in The sunwhich prompted Ms Rooney to post her findings on social media.

The court heard Ms Rooney first wrote her post “Wagatha Christie” in her notepad with pen and paper before typing it up and sending it to her brother, who manages her social media accounts.

Ms Rooney said she chose not to approach Ms Vardy privately with the allegation because she felt she was “trying to cover it up” and “not being truthful”.

After sharing the post, the court heard Ms Vardy text her saying: “What the hell is that?” to which Ms Rooney replied: “You know what it is.”

Ms Vardy then asked Ms Rooney: “Who is your lawyer?”

Ms Rooney, who said she found the threat of legal letters and lawyers intimidating, was surprised that the story “got as big as it is
been”.

The mother-of-four also spoke about her rise to fame and reports of her husband’s inappropriate behavior, telling the court, “A few unfortunate things have happened in my life and they’ve gotten publicity.”
The hearing, which is expected to conclude on Thursday, will continue.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]