Footballer Jamie Vardy vowed “they ain’t bringing us down” after seeing news reports claiming Wayne Rooney had giving him a dressing-down about his wife’s behaviour at Euro 2016, it has been revealed.
The alleged incident featured in the blockbuster Wagatha Christie High Court libel battle that has been raging for the last two weeks between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy.
Wayne Rooney gave evidence under oath on Tuesday that the conversation with his England teammate Vardy had taken place after concerns from the FA that his WAG wife was hogging the headlines.
However, Leicester striker Vardy instantly put out a press statement which rubbished Rooney’s evidence and accused him of talking “nonsense”.
Newly-released court documents show the WhatsApp messages exchanged between Vardy and his wife in June 2016 when the story first appeared.
“Seriously????” Wrote Mrs Vardy, prompting Mr Vardy to reply back 18 minutes later: “No not at all babes x”.
She then told her husband: “Tw*ts trying to make me into a scapegoat” and he replied: “F***ing a***holes x”.
The exchange featured in the bundle of court documents that was used in the libel battle, where Vardy was accused of leaking stories on Rooney to The Sun newspaper.
Later in the same day, under a second story about the alleged incident, Mrs Vardy writes to her husband: “Jesus… This must have come from somewhere! Bet it’s his Mrs manager.”
Her husband replies: “Haha no1 said a word, probably the bloody FA.”
Mrs Vardy tells him: “Jokes makes my blood boil X”, and Mr Vardy replies the following minute to say: “Papers for u with nothing better to do coz they got no stories x”.
When she complains “Exactly not fair to pick on me though wankers x”, her husband writes: “That’s all they ever do. It’s like attack us as much as possible x.
“Build us up to smash us back down x
“F*** them they ain’t bringing us down x”
Vardy rounds off the conversation by saying: “Not arsed babe x”, and her husband replies: “Me neither babes x”.
In his evidence, Wayne Rooney recalled an incident at Euro 2016 when he says he was asked by England manager Roy Hodgson and assistant manager Gary Neville to speak to Jamie Vardy.
“It was awkward for me to have to speak to a teammate about his wife,” he said.
“We were sat in the games room where the darts board, pool table, and table tennis was. I sat down with Mr Vardy and spoke to him.
“I remember Mr Vardy had a can of Red Bull and I had a coffee. I remember details of the conversation with Jamie because it was such an awkward moment, having to speak to him.”
Rooney said he agreed to the chat as national team captain and told the court the whole team had previously discussed avoiding off the pitch distractions during the tournament.
“I agreed to speak to Mr Vardy and ask him to speak to his wife, ask him to ask his wife to calm down and not bring any issues off the pitch which was unnecessary.”
In her evidence, Rebekah Vardy insisted the conversation did not take place and claimed she had spoken to Rooney over FaceTime when he had dismissed media speculation over the incident as “a load of b*******”.
“I do recall Mrs Vardy on FaceTime a lot throughout the tournament,” said Rooney.
“When the lads had downtime, the players had darts, pool, and Mrs Vardy was almost there in the team. She was on FaceTime a lot.
“I know I spoke to Jamie, 100 per cent. What he gives off to his wife is entirely his business, and not down to me.”
In his statement outside court, Jamie Vardy said through a representative: “Wayne is talking nonsense.
“He must be confused because he never spoke to me about issues concerning Becky’s media work at Euro 2016.
“There was nothing to speak about, I know this because I discuss everything with Becky.”
Closing arguments in the libel trial were heard yesterday in court, with David Sherborne, for Rooney, accusing Vardy of deliberately deleting incriminating evidence and asserting that the accusation at the heart of the case – that she was leaking stories – is true.
Replying, Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Vardy, suggested Rooney had failed to come up with any evidence of leaking, and had instead built her case on “conspiracy theories”.
Mrs Justice Steyn has reserved judgment in the court battle to a later date.
