Coleen Rooney has explained in full how she rumbled “fame hungry” Rebekah Vardy in the fifth day of the High Court libel trial in London.
The defamation case centres around Rooney, 36, accusing Vardy, 40, of leaking "false stories" about her private life in October 2019.
Rooney claims she carried out a months-long “sting operation” which saw her dubbed “Wagatha Christie” for her efforts.
And today the mum-of-four, married to Derby County manager Wayne, has revealed the details of how she discovered Vardy, wife of Leicester City striker Jamie.
The multimillion-pound libel trial in London is scheduled to take place for two more days.
Giving evidence in her cross-examination, Rooney told the court how she confessed to her publicist Rachel Monk she was growing suspicious of Rebekah Vardy.
She said the future I'm a Celebrity contestant had been “fame hungry” at the 2018 World Cup and had been “speaking to the press”.
Monk told her to “delete her off your Insta”. (sic)
Rebekah Vardy's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC asked why she had not done that. Rooney explained she had already tried it, but Vardy demanded to know why she was blocked.
Tomlinson asked: “You wanted to trap her?'' to which Rooney replied: “No, not trap. I just wanted to find out who was doing this to me. I thought if I went public with whoever it was it would stop.”
Tomlinson quizzed Rooney over why she had not told anyone about the “sting operation”.
Rooney said: “Because I don't like to do something if I'm not 100% sure myself. So I didn't want to mention it to anyone if there was the smallest little bit of doubt. I felt I didn't need to tell anyone.”
Tomlinson asked why she had not told husband Wayne.
“One thing I don't do is put my troubles or worries on someone else,'' she replied. “I try to deal with things in silence myself until I need to.''
Rooney explained how she used a ‘hide my story' function on the social media site to ensure only Vardy's account could view fake stories she was posting. The stories were hidden from her other 300 followers on her private account.
She said the 'gender selection story' - one of her fake tales - was "only seen by one person".
Tomlinson suggested that sometimes "things go missing" by accident on social media and asked why she thought Vardy's missing evidence was a deliberate cover up.
Rooney said: “I feel that there were a lot of occasions when things went missing not just from Mrs Vardy and Caroline Watt. I do understand things can happen. But not that much.''
Rooney then told of the moment she felt she had finally rumbled Rebekah Vardy. She had published a fake story on Instagram about her flooded basement.
“The story was fake,'' she said. “There was nothing to it.''
Afterwards Rooney posted on her private Instagram: “Don't play games with a girl who can play better.''
Vardy’s lawyer Tomlinson asked why. Rooney replied: “I felt like I'd found out who it was. It was a quote that I found and put it up. It is just something that I did.''
Lawyer Mr Tomlinson asked Coleen if she had considered telling Vardy before publicly exposing her.
She replied: “No. I decided that was not what I was going to do. I realised she had a relationship with the press. I thought maybe if I did approach her she might twist it.
“She might say it was not her and cover it up somehow, be nice and not be truthful. So I didn't give her the opportunity. I believe that it was her account and she knew about it.''
Coleen Rooney denied framing her big social media reveal as a 'whodunnit' - and said she had no idea the story would explode.
Lawyer Mr Tomlinson suggested she knew her reveal would be create ‘massive’ headlines worldwide.
“I knew that it would get attention - but I didn't think it would be big,” she said. “I didn't think I would be sitting here today. It was way bigger than I intended.''
Tomlinson said she designed her reveal to attract attention.
“I use dots a lot,'' she said in court. “That was just the way I write. It came natural to me. I had come to the end of what I could do.''
Last week, the High Court was shown expletive-ridden WhatsApp messages exchanged between Vardy and her agent, Caroline Watt, where Vardy branded Coleen Rooney a “c***”.
Vardy also branded Rooney a “stupid cow” who “deserves everything she gets” and said she should “get over herself”.
In court today, Rooney called the messages Rebekah Vardy exchanged with agent Caroline Watt "evil".
She said: “I have never done anything to them for them to call me, monitor me or stalk me.''
Vardy’s lawyer Tomlinson then suggested she relished exposing Vardy as the "villain".
“No, not the villain. Whether it was Rebekah Vardy or someone else I would have done it the same way," Rooney replied.
“I felt like I needed to do something. That is what I decided to do and I did.''
The trial continues.
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