Wayne Rooney asked teammate Jamie Vardy to get his wife to “calm down” during Euro 2016 at the request of the England manager, a court has heard.
Mr Rooney said that then-national team boss Roy Hodgson and assistant Gary Neville wanted him to speak to the Leicester strtiker about the “distracting” media attention Rebekah Vardy was receiving during the tournament.
Giving evidence at the High Court libel trial brought against his wife, Coleen, Mr Rooney said that “[Mr Hodgson and Mr Neville] asked me to, as captain, would I be able to speak to Mr Vardy on issues regarding his wife.”
“So I agreed to speak to Mr Vardy... to ask him to ask his wife to calm down... It was an awkward moment for me to speak to Jamie about his wife but I thought it was necessary having been asked by the England manager,” he added.
He clarified: “I was asked to speak to my team mate Jamie Vardy about the fact that Becky’s media activities were causing problems and distractions”.
Ms Vardy’s legal team dispute that this conversation took place.
Today marks day six of the libel trial against Ms Rooney, who is being sued by Ms Vardy for defamation after she publicly accused her of being the source of stories about her that were leaked to The Sun newspaper.
