The late Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding is said to have accused Rebekah Vardy of taking 'intrusive' photographs of her at the National Television Awards. The disclosure is the latest in a series of messages that have been made public as part of an ongoing legal case, which is due to go to trial in May.
The wife of ex-footballer Wayne Rooney, Coleen Rooney, has claimed model Rebekah Vardy, the wife of footballer Jamie Vardy, leaked information about her to The Sun.
In a ruling on Thursday, Mrs Justice Steyn handed a partial victory to Mrs Vardy’s legal team, ordering the removal of certain elements of Mrs Rooney’s evidence, Liverpool Echo reports. The judgement revealed how some of Mrs Rooney's defence statements made reference to an incident at National Television Awards, which was attended by Mrs Vardy and Sarah Harding in January 2018.
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Sarah Harding died last September aged 39 following a battle with breast cancer. The defence statement read: "She (Vardy) also got in a spat with former Girls Aloud group member Sarah Harding (“Sarah”) during the 2018 event because Sarah apparently caught Becky taking photographs of the contents of Sarah’s handbag when Sarah had dropped it on the floor.
"Their dispute subsequently appeared in The Sun." A second defence statement also discussed the incident.
It read: "At the awards ceremony the Claimant was accused by Sarah Harding of taking intrusive photographs of her without her consent, as was reported in The Sun on 27 January 2018."
Mrs Justice Steyn chose to strike out the above statements from Mrs Rooney's defence. The judgement also made reference to WhatsApp messages suggesting Mrs Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt regularly discussed journalists at The Sun.
At one point Mrs Vardy says she was concerned that Mrs Rooney blocked her on Instagram after stories appeared in the media. In response, the agent says “I wouldn’t tell anyone but The Sun”, and Mrs Rooney can’t "f***ing prove anything though and if she wants to think that then f**k her".
Ms Watt said she had been in touch with Sun journalist Andy Halls about the incident: “I messaged him and he said absolutely not and he never would say what his source was.”
In November 2018 Ms Watt also told Mrs Vardy to look out for Sun celebrity journalist Amy Brookbanks at an event and “make a point of saying hello” because the reporter “always writes nice stories, does whatever I ask her and gets stories changed that she hasn’t even written”.
The judge turned down a request by Mrs Rooney’s lawyers to search the phones of a number of Sun journalists for potential communications with Mrs Vardy and her agent.
The trial is listed for May 9 and is set to last seven days.
