Coleen Rooney (centre) and husband Wayne (right) depart the Royal Courts of Justice during the high-profile 'Wagatha Christie' trial. Photo / Getty Images
Coleen Rooney (centre) and husband Wayne (right) depart the Royal Courts of Justice during the high-profile 'Wagatha Christie' trial. Photo / Getty Images
Coleen Rooney has called Rebekah Vardy “odd” and said she is not ready to forgive her after their “Wagatha Christie” libel trial at the High Court.
Rooney, the wife of retired England and Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney, won her legal battle against Vardy last year in a case that gripped the nation.
The dispute began in 2019 when Rooney accused the wife of Leicester City and former England striker Jamie Vardy of leaking private information to The Sun newspaper.
Vardy denied passing information to the tabloid and brought a libel case against the 37-year-old, but High Court judge Justice Steyn ruled the accusation was “substantially true”.
In an interview with British Vogue, Rooney described Vardy as “odd” for bringing the case against her, recalling it was “quite painful” to watch her address the court.
“It was so weird that first day, actually sitting on a bench together,” she said. “I just thought: ‘Why have you put yourself in this position?’ It was not nice to watch. It was so difficult in that courtroom, especially watching her on the stand. It was quite painful. I felt uneasy.”
In her first interview about the trial, Rooney suggested she was not ready to draw a line under the dispute, saying: “I’m a forgive-and-forget person – I can’t be bothered with things going on and on. But this is obviously totally different.”
Speaking about her explosive tweet – which contained the now famous cliffhanger: “It’s... Rebekah Vardy’s account” – Rooney said she did not tell anyone she planned to expose Vardy as the source of tabloid stories.
Rebekah Vardy arrives at Royal Courts of Justice in London in 2022. Photo / Getty Images
“In the night I started thinking about what I was going to do. I just wanted these stories to stop. So I started writing what I wanted to say and then the next morning I put it out there. That was the start of something that I would never have expected.
“My friends and family were most surprised at me putting the post up. What I said in that post I still stick by today.”
Last year, Rooney secured a reported multi-million-pound deal with Disney+ for a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the case and said filming the three-part series had “brought up a lot of emotions”.
“I felt like everyone else has spoken about it except me. And it’s my story to tell,” she said. “It was quite surreal how many people followed it, not just footballers or the girls. It felt like everyone was reading about it, all ages, all types.”
The documentary, as yet untitled, is set to be released later this year.
Rooney also said her three-year legal battle had caused problems in her marriage, although she stressed that her husband was supportive throughout.
“He kept saying all the way throughout it: ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.’ But there were certain moments where we did have disagreements. Not over the case, but he would get annoyed with me because I was quite short-tempered. I didn’t have time for him.
“We’ve had our ups and downs. Obviously everybody knows. It’s been hard to go through it in the public eye but there has always been love there. If the love is gone then, you know, it’s pointless. But if not, you’ve got something to work for.”
The full feature is in the September issue of British Vogue, available via digital download and on newsstands from August 22.
