Coleen and Wayne Rooney are absent from court today as the 'Wagatha Christie' libel trial enters its final day. The trial comes after Mrs Rooney accused fellow WAG Rebekah Vardy of allegedly leaking false stories about her to the tabloids back in 2019. Mrs Rooney said she used an Instagram 'sting' to discover Mrs Vardy had been sharing stories with the Sun newspaper - an accusation Mrs Vardy vehemently denies.
Mrs Vardy sued Mrs Rooney for defamation after she was publicly accused of leaking the stories. The libel trial - dubbed 'Wagatha Christie' as a portmanteau of "WAG" and "Agatha Christie" - started on May 10 at the High Court of Justice in London.
Today (Thursday, May 19) is expected to be the last day of the trial and while Mrs Vardy arrived at the court for proceedings this morning, Mr and Mrs Rooney will not be attending. The couple's absence is due to a "long-standing travel arrangement," their barrister told the High Court. David Sherborne said the couple had asked him to pass on "individual apologies" and to explain "they intend no disrespect to the court".
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The barrister emphasised that the couple had attended the trial throughout proceedings so far and added: "They had a long-standing travel agreement with their four children which was booked in advance by their lawyers." Mr Sherborne said the booking was made on the understanding that the court would not be sitting today. In response, the judge Mrs Justice Steyn said: "I don't take offence".
So far in today's proceedings, Mrs Rooney's barrister Mr Sherborne has summarised that his client was taken to court because of a "reveal post" on social media. "She [Mrs Rooney] herself said so much more of it had been made than she expected, both at the time and since, and the trolling of Mrs Vardy was vile," he said. "[The reveal post] is what she believed at the time… and it is what she believes even more so now that we have got to the end of the case. She finds herself at the end of a seven-day libel trial, and for what?"
"The burden lies on us to establish on a balance of probabilities that the post is substantially true," he later explained. "Mrs Vardy has regularly and frequently leaked to The Sun information about a number of people she knows."
Discussing Coleen Rooney’s private Instagram account, Mr Sherborne added: "The suggestion that the information that was being posted on was not very private and this should affect the defence of truth is also misconceived."
Earlier in the trial, the court heard Mr Rooney say that the period after his wife's "reveal" post on social media was "very traumatic" for her and that he had watched her "really struggle". "For me and my wife, we don’t want to be in this court," Mr Rooney said earlier in proceedings. "I've watched my wife over the last two-and-a-half years really struggle with everything, becoming a different mother, a different wife. It's been very traumatic for my wife."
Previously the court heard Coleen talk about the aftermath of her “reveal” post and Mrs Vardy’s response. Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Mrs Vardy, said: "She makes it clear to you that it wasn’t her, doesn’t she?" To which Mrs Rooney replied: "She says she has zero interest in what’s going on in my life, which I believe is totally untrue. She talks about me a lot… so that was a lie."
Mrs Rooney also discussed WhatsApp messages the court had heard between Mrs Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt – in which Mrs Rooney featured. She said she had never met or spoken to Ms Watt, commenting on the pair's conversations as "evil and uncalled for."
The libel battle comes after Mrs Rooney publicly claimed that the source for three fake stories published in The Sun, that she had posted on her personal Instagram account, was Mrs Vardy's account. The fake stories Mrs Rooney planted on her Instagram during the sting operation featured her travelling to Mexico for a gender selection procedure, her planning to return to TV, and the basement flooding at her home.
After seeing the false stories in the press, Mrs Rooney decided to reveal who she believed to be the culprit in a post on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. She wrote: "I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It's ………. Rebekah Vardy's account."
The trial continues.
