Coleen Rooney has not attended the last day of the Wagatha Christie trial.
Mrs Rooney and her husband Wayne Rooney have skipped the last day of the libel trial at the Royal Courts of Justice to go on a family holiday with their children. According to reports, the Liverpool couple expected the trial to be over sooner.
Rebekah Vardy turned up alone, without her footballer husband Jamie Vardy, for the final day of the trial. The High Court libel battle Is expected to draw to a close today, as lawyers for each of the women set out each of their cases.
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The Rooneys were given permission from the judge to be absent. Mrs Justice Steyn will hear the final arguments today before publishing a written judgement in the coming weeks.
David Sherborne said that the couple have asked him to pass on "individual apologies" and to explain "that they intend no disrespect to the court". The lawyer, highlighting that the husband and wife had attended the trial throughout so far, added: "They had a long-standing travel arrangement with their four children which was booked in advance by their lawyers."
Mr Sherborne said this was done on the understanding that Thursday was not going to be a day the court was sitting. The judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, said: "I don't take offence".
The WAG's lawyers will summarise the case in closing speeches, following which the judge will reserve her ruling on the case to a later date. It all started when Mrs Rooney accused Mrs Vardy of leaking "false stories" about her private life in October 2019 after carrying out a "sting operation".
In a social media post, shared by Mrs Rooney, she accused Rebekah Vardy's Instagram account of selling stories about her. Mrs Rooney said she had had her suspicions for years that someone was sharing stories with The S*n, and so laid a trap to try and catch the person out.
Mrs Rooney shared fake stories to her Instagram account and set it so that only Mrs Vardy's account could see it. Those stories then went on to appear in The S*n newspaper and other media outlets.
Mrs Vardy has denied the accusation and said that several people had had access to her account. In return Mrs Vardy has s ued the fellow footballer's wife for damages for libel over the "untrue and unjustified defamatory attack".
Mrs Rooney is defending the claim on the basis of truth and public interest.
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