Original subtitles

This programme contains strong language.

I saw Coleen's post which said I'd leaked to The Sun

soon after it was published on the 9th October 2019.

It came as a great shock to me.

I could not believe that Coleen had not called me before

posting this accusation to the world.

My concerns were that I would not faint,

have a panic attack or stop breathing.

I started to get really hot

and suffered from strange palpitations.

Loads of messages started coming

through on my mobile phone calling me names.

"Fucking rat", "fucking bitch."

"Who sells their friends out?"

I was heavily pregnant

and I panicked that the baby was in danger.

I made myself calm down and tried to think clearly.

I knew there must have been a mistake.

A very public row has broken

out between the wives of two high profile footballers.

She conducted an undercover sting operation.

Feels like the start of something quite explosive.

Colleen Rooney taking the witness box for

the very first time on day four of this trial.

In fact, it's the first time she has ever spoken publicly about this case at all.

Coleen Rooney's defence as

to what she said is that she's telling the truth

and it was Rebekah Vardy behind those leaks,

and if she can prove that then she's fine,

but if she can't, then she could lose this trial.

By the time Vardy finished her testimony,

many thought this trial was over.

But, this couldn't have been further from the truth.

Vardy's team began one of

the most extraordinary fight backs over

the next three days,

and their target would be Coleen Rooney herself.

My Lady, Mrs Vardy has been the subject of an untrue

and unjustified defamatory attack.

Really, it is a very simple case.

Has Mrs Rooney proved that Mrs Vardy leaked

the information from her post that she's accused of leaking?

Mrs Vardy has made mistakes

and trusted someone she shouldn't have trusted.

But, there is a glaring absence of evidence.

Mrs Rooney couldn't possibly be certain that it was Mrs Vardy.

And yet, she made that accusation.

Mrs Rooney...

..can you get out the bundle that says D1?

That is the post that you put up on 9th October 2019,

What were you trying

to achieve by putting that post up, Mrs Rooney?

I wasn't trying to achieve anything.

What I wanted to do was to stop

the person leaking my private information to The Sun.

I gave out warning signs many a time

but it didn't stop so, this was my last resort.

But, by putting it up in that way you obviously knew that it was

going to cause a massive impact across millions of people, correct?

No. Even I was surprised at how much impact it caused.

Well, you have millions of followers on social media.

Yeah, I do.

And it must have been obvious

to you that putting this up would lead

to Mrs Vardy being abused, wasn't it?

No.

That wasn't my intention at all.

Not at all.

I would not ever, it's not in my nature

to cause abuse or trolling in any way at all.

I knew it would obviously cause attention

but I never thought it would be as big as it has gone,

and I did not think I'd be sitting here today.

It's, yeah, it's a lot bigger than what I ever thought or intended it to do.

It was three years earlier when

Rooney first became convinced that one

of her private Instagram followers was leaking stories on her.

She had no idea who it was and little to go on.

Vardy's team now sought to prove that it was unfair

to suspect Vardy so early on.

I'd like to take you now

to this you published this cry of rage, or complaint.

I was upset that my personal information was getting passed on to a newspaper.

And then you decide to review the accounts

of your followers on your private Instagram account, is that right? Yeah.

Some of these are obviously relatives?

Yeah, relatives, friends.

And you decide that Mrs Vardy stands out.

Is that right?

Yes.

Becky's account was the one that stood out

to me at that time for me for a number of reasons.

A, I knew that Becky often featured prominently in

the Exclusive articles with The Sun.

I always got the impression that no topic was ever off

the table as far as Becky was concerned.

I remember that Wayne ended up having to have a word

with Jamie to ask him to speak to Becky

because her media activity was causing

a distraction at Euro 2016 in France.

B, Becky stuck out to me as someone who actively wanted

to be famous.

I've been involved in football circles

for around 20 years.

I've come across different types of footballers' partners,

some of them enjoy and seek the limelight.

C, I always thought about Becky's relationship with me.

I thought she was trying a bit too hard.

She would message me out of the blue.

I got the overarching impression that she was trying to be close to me

because she thought that doing so might help her own interests.

So, you've got three pieces of..."evidence."

You've got some exclusives with The Sun,

you've got desire to be famous,

and you've got the fact that she

sends you messages you think are odd? Yes.

You look at the rest of your followers and you think,

"These are all absolutely delightful people."

With the others, I feel like I've got a perfectly fine relationship.

I mean, there's a reason why I thought it was Rebekah Vardy,

I didn't just pluck her from thin air.

Well, Mrs Rooney, I am not making this up.

I'm just summarising your witness statement.

But, there are more than 300 followers on this

Instagram account, aren't there? Yes.

Some of them are businesses?

Yes. There's Puro organic juice. Yes.

Kathryn's designer kids. Yes.

Strawberry Childrenswear.

That's a friend of mine who owns a shop in Liverpool.

Obviously some of them will have employees

who will operate their accounts.

Yeah, but I trust them to be on my account.

Puro juice is just one girl who does her own juices from home.

And Kathryn, well, Kathryn I've known for years.

These are all small local businesses.

You can hope that they will respect your wishes

and keep your posts confidential, but you don't know, do you?

No, but, I agree, yeah but, I've accepted these on my trust.

But you can't guarantee it?

No.

And, although your suspicions have focused on Mrs Vardy,

you can't be sure that someone else isn't responsible?

I believe that the account is the one that was responsible.

That wasn't the question I asked. Sorry.

I didn't ask what you believed. I asked whether you could be sure.

Yes. I do believe it came from her account.

Can you look at Bundle D, page 42?

This is a WhatsApp exchange between you and Rachel Monk?

Yes.

But, we don't have your WhatsApp messages, do we?

No, no, no.

Why is that?

That's because I changed my phone over

and my WhatsApp wouldn't download

so that's why Rachel produced hers and I never did mine.

You didn't deliberately delete your WhatsApp?

No, I never, I've got no reason to delete.

You see, when this happens to Mrs Vardy,

it's apparently a plot to delete relevant evidence.

But, when it happens to you,

it's just one of those things that happens in

the ordinary course of events.

You're complaining here

to Rachel Monk that something has come from your Instagram.

Yes.

You say to her this.

This is the true position.

You had suspected Rebekah Vardy from the start.

She was the suspicious one

and you're not paying any attention to anybody else?

No, I did pay attention,

but there is no-one else on my private Instagram that was in

a position to give this information over to The Sun.

And then she replied.

There's a section in your witness statement headed

"Desire to be famous."

How is that evidence that she was leaking from your private

Instagram account?

That's not, but my view was that she wanted to be kept relevant.

I felt like what she got back from giving my Instagram post was

to get press attention.

Mrs Rooney, there isn't a shred

of evidence that it was Mrs Vardy, is there?

Well, it was someone on my Instagram account,

and I believe it was Rebekah Vardy.

On day six of the trial,

Wayne Rooney was sensationally asked to take the stand.

This was the moment we'd all been waiting for.

He was in the witness box

because Coleen had used something that he had told her as evidence

of Vardy's general hunger for fame.

Vardy's team demanded a chance to test the honesty of his claim.

Good morning, Mr Rooney. Morning.

You were the England captain during the 2016 Euros? I was.

And Mr Jamie Vardy was also one of the England squad?

He was.

I was asked to speak to my teammate Jamie Vardy about

the fact that Becky's media activities were causing problems

and distractions which the FA wanted to avoid.

And as with all England tournaments, there was a lot

of media attention on what was going on with the players

and also their wives, girlfriends, partners and so on?

There was.

Which member of

the FA staff asked you to speak to Mr Vardy?

It was the England manager, Roy Hodgson,

and his assistant manager, Gary Neville.

What did they say to you?

So, they asked me, would I be able to speak

to Mr Vardy on issues regarding his wife.

We all knew it was an awkward subject, so, I agreed.

And really to ask him to ask his wife to calm down.

"To ask his wife to calm down."

I mean, she wasn't dancing on tables,

what kind of calming down are we talking about, Mr Rooney?

No, she wasn't, as far as I was aware.

But, there was a lot of negativity and a lot of media coverage.

You've been in this court throughout,

Mr Rooney, supporting your wife.

You've seen documents referred to where Mrs Vardy was asking her

husband whether it was true that you'd spoken to him?

Yeah. And he'd said no.

Yeah, I'm aware of that.

And do you remember a time when you were with him

and he was Facetiming his wife who was asking him "is it right that

"Wayne's been told to tell you off?"

And he said no.

And then he got you on

the screen and you said the same thing to her.

I don't recall that conversation ever taking place.

I know I spoke to Jamie Vardy 100%.

Whether Jamie goes on to give that information

to his wife, that's entirely his business.

If he didn't tell his wife, that's down to him.

All I done was carry out the instruction.

Do you remember when you

and Jamie spoke to a journalist from The Sun about

the supposed telling off? No, I don't.

You told the journalist from The Sun that it was rubbish.

I don't recall, but as England captain I would always try

and protect the players in the public as much as I can,

to entitle the players to have

the best chance of being successful on the pitch.

You see, Mr Rooney,

I am suggesting that you're wrong about that,

that you didn't actually raise it with Mr Vardy

because there was actually nothing to raise?

I'm sat here under oath.

I 100% spoke to Mr Vardy on this situation.

Jamie was a teammate for the national team.

He's not someone I've ever particularly been friends

with outside football.

The following statement is on behalf of Jamie Vardy.

Wayne is talking nonsense. He must be confused.

He never spoke to me. There was nothing to speak about.

I know this, because I discuss everything with Becky. Thank you.

This public falling out between two old teammates was great theatre.

But, in terms of the trial, was something of a sideshow.

Now, we're about to get to the heart of the case.

Because back in 2019, Coleen Rooney's suspicions led her

to start taking direct action against Rebekah Vardy herself.

As a result of my growing sense of suspicion,

I decided to remove Becky as a follower of

the private Instagram account in

and around the first week of February 2019

to see whether that put a stop to the leaks.

I also stopped following her.

And about a month later you received a message from Mrs Vardy.

"Hi, my love, hope you are all OK.

"I saw you had unfollowed me

"and I wasn't following you any more on Instagram,

"just wanted to ask if I had done something or offended you in any way?

"Literally only noticed the other day."

You said this increased your suspicions?

Yes, it did. We're not good friends

so if I was in her shoes I'd just forget about it

and not message the person.

Well, you might have wondered why they had done it though?

Yeah, but, I don't think personally I would go out of my way

and message that person and say,

"Have I done something to offend you?"

And you replied by telling a lie, didn't you?

Yes, it was a cover up for what I was investigating.

You said to her...

Why weren't you honest, Mrs Rooney? Why didn't you say,

"I suspected you've been leaking my stories?"

Because I didn't want to. I know it sounds a bit tough,

but at the time I didn't think she would tell me

the truth even if I did confront her.

I had tried the warning shot

and I had temporarily removed Becky as a follower of

the private Instagram account before reinstating her

but nothing had worked.

I wanted to catch the account responsible red-handed as it were

and so I came up with a plan.

So, between the middle of August

and the beginning of October, you posted

a very large number

of stories on your private Instagram account,

visible only to Mrs Vardy's account? Yes.

There were in fact something like 50 stories that you posted over that

period available only to Mrs Vardy's account?

I'm not sure how many there were in all.

And while that operation was going on,

there was another apparent crisis in your relationship

with your husband, wasn't there?

There were newspaper reports about your husband misbehaving.

It's unfortunate that things have happened in my life

and it gets publicised but it's happened quite

a few times, we've dealt with it as a couple.

Well, let's look at some of

the posts you put up during that period.

As we'll see in due course, only one made it into The Sun.

No, I believe that two ended up in The Sun.

Well, If you can look at Bundle D, page 21.

Given that Rooney was posting as

many as five or even six fake stories a day,

all seen only by Rebekah Vardy's account,

the question was why

so many didn't end up in the press.

That's a fake post about you setting up an events company.

That never made it into The Sun, did it? No.

So, that's a false post which went nowhere.

And, if you look at the next page.

There's "Going to be a big house warming party," was that true?

No.

Further on. "Wedding vibes, planning," is that true? No.

Did that make it into The Sun? No.

I want to ask you about the fake TV decisions post,

because I'm going to suggest that that shows

something about your attitude in this case.

Your conclusion

that this was something that had been leaked from your private

Instagram was wrong, wasn't it?

Yes, but I believed at

the time that it was leaked from my private Instagram.

Well, let's look at the post.

Page 39.

"Maybe it's time," have you got that?

Yes. "Up and out. Easing my way back into work.

"TV decisions today. Maybe it's time for Australia."

What is that fake post referring to?

It's referring to I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.

And if we look then at the article that followed.

"Coleen Rooney in talks to join Strictly next year."

Do they make Strictly in Australia, Mrs Rooney?

No. But this is about Strictly

and your post was about I'm A Celebrity?

Yes, but the same thing was that I was returning to TV.

The speculation in the tabloids about you going back

to TV had been going on all year, hadn't it?

Yes. But it was the fact that it was three days after I posted my fake post,

so that's why I thought it came from that fake post.

You had been running this sting operation since August,

and we're now nearly at the end of September.

And you haven't found a single article that was supposed

to come from your private Instagram.

So, when you saw the TV decisions, your eyes lit up.

You thought, "Hoorah, I've solved it."

No, that's why I didn't do that post at that time.

I didn't think it was a good enough one to go out

and say, I've found the person. So that's why I continued to go on.

The truth is this, Mrs Rooney,

you don't actually have any evidence to link Mrs Vardy

with the leaking of this material, do you?

I believe that Mrs Vardy knew that this was happening.

What you believe isn't evidence, Mrs Rooney, is it?

I mean, you might believe that Derby County will win

the Premiership in two years' time,

but that's not evidence that they're going to, is it?

This whole trial hinged on the question of proof.

Could Rooney prove her allegations about Rebekah Vardy?

Vardy's team had argued much

of Rooney's case was just based on guess work.

But, there was one piece of evidence left that they still had

to explain. It was the biggest,

most difficult to explain away piece of evidence.

A fake post about flooding in

Rooney's house which Rooney had posted

and Rebekah Vardy's account had seen.

And which somehow had ended up in

the hands of journalists from The Sun.

On the 2nd of October 2019,

I uploaded the flooded basement post to

the private Instagram account.

This was only seen by Becky's Instagram account.

Several days after posting the flooded basement post,

on the 8th of October 2019,

the flooded basement article written by Simon Boyle was published in The Sun.

You saw the article in The Sun.

You decided to put up your reveal post.

You were convinced

that Mrs Vardy was the person responsible? Yes.

You never thought whether it might be someone else

with access to her account?

I did. And as time went on that's when I believed that

Mrs Vardy must have been a part of it.

Well, Mrs Vardy's put in

a witness statement saying that it's possible that her agent was

responsible. But, you've refused to accept that as

a possible explanation, is that right?

I believe that Mrs Vardy knew what was happening.

It's common knowledge that a media personality or a celebrity,

would not be the only person with access

to their Instagram account.

Do you agree with that? Yes.

And if someone else has access,

then you don't necessarily know what they're doing to it, do you?

No, but if had control over that account,

I would make sure I knew what they were doing with it.

And how would you do that, Mrs Rooney?

Your brother controls your public account? Yes.

And you don't sit beside him every moment that he's looking at the account?

No. So, he could put things on there without you knowing about it,

couldn't he? He could, but he doesn't.

So the reality is,

you have no idea whether Mrs Vardy was responsible.

She may have been, she may not have been.

I don't know.

But having looked at the material since,

I believe that Mrs Vardy knew a lot about what was going on.

We're talking about the post.

We're not talking about what you knew since.

You knew that there were possible

explanations which didn't involve her, didn't you?

No, I believed that it was from her account and she knew about it.

You knew there were possible

explanations that didn't involve her? You've accepted that already.

There is a possibility, but I didn't think it was, no.

There was no reason you shouldn't go to Mrs Vardy

and say to her, "Look, this has happened.

"What do you say about it?" Was there?

I decided that's what I wasn't going to do.

I felt like she had relationships with the press

and she'd twist it. So, I didn't give her that opportunity, no.

And then very shortly afterwards she messaged you on

WhatsApp, didn't she?

She says...

And she made it clear to you that it wasn't her, didn't she?

She says that she has no interest in my life,

which I believe is untrue,

because obviously she talks about me a lot, so, I think that's a lie.

Mrs Rooney, on the disclosed WhatsApp messages,

she talks about you on a few occasions over

a period of two years. It is not a lot.

Yeah, but, she's got no need to talk about me or my Instagram.

Especially with Caroline Watt.

I've never even spoken to Caroline Watt.

I just feel like the messages between them both were evil

and uncalled for.

I've never done anything to them for them

to be monitoring me and stalking me.

Well, at this time you hadn't seen those WhatsApp conversations.

And yet you just refused to believe her, didn't you?

Yes, I didn't trust her. I didn't believe her, no.

You were absolutely determined that you were

going to out her, weren't you?

On the 9th of October, you were going to reveal to

the world that Rebekah Vardy was the villain.

No, not the villain.

She was the person who was passing on my private information to

the press. I decided I needed to do something. So I did.

I called her.

She told me that she wanted to make me feel paranoid

the way she had felt paranoid.

She was very cold

and showed no remorse even though I was upset.

I found it chilling and quite menacing.

Finding out about Coleen's campaign

to secretly target me was extremely upsetting.

It made me feel like someone had been monitoring me

and putting me under surveillance without my permission.

I think Coleen and her PR advisers made me a scapegoat.

I believe they have done this in part to change

the narrative in the press about Coleen being

a doormat following her husband's drink driving charge

and the multiple allegations of cheating.

So, when she was abused, what did you do to put it right?

Mrs Vardy directed lawyers the day I put it out,

so it was in their hands from that day on.

So is the answer nothing?

Well, I stuck with what my lawyers

and obviously Mrs Vardy's lawyers directed.

The choice as to what to do is yours, isn't it?

Yes, it is.

Meanwhile, there was a massive reaction on social media, yes?

Yes, there was. People were talking about "Wagatha Christie."

Yeah, which is just ridiculous. I mean,

I got a lot of people sending me photo shots.

Obviously people didn't know how serious

the story behind it was. So, yeah, I have got

a lot of pictures on my phone that I screenshot from that day

but I've never done anything with them.

And, to be honest with you, I've hated every minute of it.

Can we look at Bundle E?

Page 519.

Someone has Photoshopped your face

and Mrs Vardy's face on to something from Scooby Doo.

Unmasking a villain, yes? Yes.

And then on the previous page.

Someone has put your face on to the cover of an Agatha Christie book.

You saved this?

Yes.

So, these were images that were saved on your phone?

You were delighted at

the reaction that you received, weren't you?

No, I wasn't.

But, you knew that over that two months until your lawyers responded,

that Mrs Vardy was receiving vitriol and abuse, didn't you?

I know, and that is disgusting.

I was getting trolled as well,

but Mrs Vardy's was disgusting,

and I don't wish that upon anyone.

It's not right and in a world that we live in today the trolling is terrible.

But, Mrs Rooney, you chose not to do anything about it?

Because Mrs Vardy gave me a legal letter

and I didn't know how I was meant to carry on.

But, you attacked her in the post, didn't you?

No, I haven't attacked her. I haven't.

I called her out and said this is

the person who I believe whose account it is.

You see Mrs Rooney, the truth is, you have no idea whether

Mrs Vardy leaked that material to The Sun.

I believe that all the evidence I have points

the finger that Mrs Vardy knew exactly what was going on

with her account.

Thank you. I have no further questions.

Thank you.

Good morning. If I please your ladyship, good morning.

First, can I begin by explaining the absence of Mr and Mrs Rooney.

They have asked me to pass on their individual apologies

and explain that they intend no disrespect to the court.

They had a longstanding travel arrangement

with their four children, which was booked,

and approved by their lawyers.

Of course. My Lady, it seems only right that we end this case in

the way it began.

Mrs Rooney didn't want to go through a trial.

We say what Mrs Rooney said in her post was true.

It's what she believes even more so

now we have reached the end of this case.

There are a number of extraordinary features to this case.

The first is the amount of documents which are not before the court.

As we report,

the most likely explanation is deliberate deletion or destruction.

The second is the witnesses who have not given evidence.

We have no evidence from Ms Watt, who clearly had repeated contact

with these journalists through the period.

As well as, we say,

a hand in glove relationship with Mrs Vardy.

Mr Vardy didn't give evidence in court.

He chose to make a press statement outside the court,

while we were all sitting here listening to his wife's case.

"Wayne is talking nonsense," he said.

Of course it's not lost on the court, I'm sure,

that whilst he was perfectly willing to give

a press statement when not under oath,

Mr Vardy seemed apparently unwilling to provide one

for these proceedings.

We've proved, we say, that Mrs Vardy regularly

and frequently leaked to The Sun information about

a number of people she knows.

We have set out why, in a number of different ways,

the claimant has demonstrated herself to be

an entirely unreliable witness.

That includes her refusal to accept

the ordinary meaning of words such as

the all-important word "leak", a feat,

we say, of linguistic gymnastics.

We say her evidence should be treated with the utmost caution.

On its own, its accuracy simply cannot be trusted.

Mrs Vardy's suggestion that she was unaware

of Ms Watt leaking information to The Sun is completely unsustainable.

In the face of Ms Watt's message,

"It wasn't someone she trusted. It was me."

That haunting,

unequivocal

and entirely self-explanatory message is there on the page.

There was no message in response.

And that is not because Mrs Vardy was bathing her children

and watching Gemma Collins on Dancing On Ice.

It is because there was nothing to say.

Mrs Vardy knew perfectly well what Caroline Watt had been doing

and she approved it.

All rise.

As the trial ended, I had mixed emotions.

For those of us who were there,

it was sad giving up our front row seats to one of

the most anticipated cases to come out of

the Royal Courts of Justice.

There was a real sense of camaraderie.

This case fascinated all of us, tabloids and

the broadsheets were literally rubbing shoulders reporting on

the same salacious stories and shocking reveals.

It's rare for a trial like this to come to the RCJ.

Some people thought it was a huge waste of money,

others thought it was the gift that kept on giving.

But in truth, after having gone through Covid and the cost of living crisis,

and a news agenda dominated by terrible world events, this almost

provided an antidote to all that suffering.

There were unbelievable moments in there

and hints of nostalgia.

Tomlinson's comment about dancing on tables,

was a reference to the 2006 World Cup in Germany where

the term WAG was born.

It captured the nation

because they wanted to be part of the jury.

They could see how this situation could play out in their own social circles.

These two women were fearless.

Cross examination is intimidating, the Royal Courts are intimidating.

But Vardy and Rooney were both determined not to back down.

Now, all that's left is to wait.

This judgment is given following a seven day trial

of this libel claim which was brought by the claimant, Ms Rebekah Vardy.

In my judgement, Ms Rooney was an honest and reliable witness.

She sought to answer the questions that she was asked without any evasion.

I also accept Mr Rooney gave honest evidence.

Ms Vardy gave evidence for about two and a half days.

It was evident that she found the process stressful and,

at times, distressing.

I bear in mind the degree of stress she was naturally feeling,

and the abuse that she has suffered.

Nevertheless, I find that it is, unfortunately,

necessary to treat her evidence with very considerable caution.

Significant parts of Ms Vardy's evidence were not credible.

In my judgment, it is likely that Ms Vardy

deliberately deleted her WhatsApp chat with Ms Watt,

and Ms Watt deliberately dropped her phone in the sea.

However, my assessment is that Ms Vardy is genuinely offended by

the accusation made against her by Ms Rooney in the reveal post.

That is not because she was not involved in disclosing information

from the private Instagram account.

Ms Vardy's part in disclosing information to The Sun was,

it seems to me,

unthinking rather than part of a considered

and concerted business practice.

Consequently, there has been

a degree of self deception on her part regarding

the extent to which she was involved.

But, for the reasons

I have given, this claim is dismissed.

Although I bear Mrs Vardy no ill will...

..today's judgment makes clear that I was right in my posts

of October 2019.

I would like to thank all of my legal team,

my family, friends and everyone who supported me,

including the public,

through this difficult and stressful time.

I feel let down by a lot of people, a lot of things.

But most importantly I feel let down by the legal system

and I feel let down by the judge

for not understanding this case properly.

Do you wish it hadn't gone as far as it did?

Look, we tried different things

to ensure that we didn't end up where we ended up.

But, ultimately...didn't have much choice,

I didn't do anything wrong,

I didn't do what I was accused of, what else was I meant to do?

I was being vilified,

I was having abuse sent at me left, right and centre.

My children. And. I desperately tried to stop it.

But, ultimately that didn't work.

I guess the question is,

do we think the verdict is the end of this?

For Rebekah Vardy there's one thing

to take solace in, everybody loves a comeback.

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