Advertisement

Wagatha Christie trial day five: The biggest developments as Coleen Rooney explains fake 'gender selection' story - and why she didn't tell husband Wayne

Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy arrive for day five of the Wagatha Christie trial. (Getty)
Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy arrive for day five of the Wagatha Christie trial. (Getty)

It's a new week in the Wagatha Christie trial, and today Coleen Rooney is back on the stand at the High Court.

She's giving evidence about the "sting operation" she conducted to find out who was leaking stories to the press from her private Instagram account and her suspicions that Rebekah Vardy was involved.

Read more: Peter Andre endured years of mocking over Rebekah Vardy's 'chipolata' comment

Roney was accompanied to court by husband Wayne again today, whose name came up a number of times in questioning.

Here are all the biggest developments from day five.

Coleen Rooney labels Wagatha Christie nickname 'ridiculous'

Coleen Rooney arrives at Royal Courts of Justice, Strand on May 16, 2022 in London, England. Coleen Rooney, wife of Derby County manager Wayne Rooney, and Rebekah Vardy, wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, are locked in a libel battle dubbed by the media as the
Coleen Rooney claimed to find the Wagatha Christie label 'ridiculous'. (WireImage)

It's an inspired nickname for the whole incident, but Coleen Rooney has claimed to find her "Wagatha Christie" moniker "ridiculous" and said that she has "hated every minute of it".

Under questioning about the reaction to her sting operation reveal post which ended “I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s ………. Rebekah Vardy’s account,” Rooney talked about the unwelcome attention.

Read more: Amber Heard denies involvement in alleged faecal matter 'prank'

She said she had a lot of people contacting her immediately after the post calling her “Wagatha Christie”, commenting "which I just think is ridiculous".

Rooney added: “I have never spoke about this until this case, so I haven’t dwelt on it, to be honest with you I have hated every minute of it.”

She denied having “attacked” Vardy with the reveal post, adding: “I have not used vicious words, I could have done it a lot worse … I thought that was an OK way of putting it really.”

Rooney said that she felt sure she had come to the right conclusion: “I believe all the evidence pointed the finger (and) that Mrs Vardy knew exactly what was going on with her account.”

Coleen Rooney tells the story behind the fake 'gender selection' photos

Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice, London, as the high-profile libel battle between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney continues. Picture date: Monday May 16, 2022.
Coleen Rooney arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice for day five. (PA)

One of the fake stories Coleen Rooney planted to work out who was leaking her private posts to The Sun was about an apparent trip she took to a gender selection clinic in Mexico.

Explaining what happened, Rooney said she wanted The Sun to publish a “totally untrue” story about her looking into gender-selection treatment so she had “evidence” from her so-called social media “sting operation”.

Read more: SAS: Who Dares Wins viewers love 'inspiring' all-female final

In August 2019, PR woman Rachel Monk told Rooney The Sun was planning to write a story on her visiting Mexico over the treatment, with Rooney having published an allegedly fake post about the subject months earlier.

“I wanted the story to run so I had evidence,” Rooney said, adding: “I didn’t want the story out there, I wanted it for my own evidence. It was a story that was out there but it was totally untrue.”

Rooney explained she told Monk to tell the newspaper that she “can’t get hold of me”. Amid The Sun seeking a comment on the story, Rooney told the court: “I just said don’t comment… so obviously that means they run it or not, it’s up to them. I didn’t say no, I didn’t say yes.”

Coleen Rooney explains why she didn't tell husband Wayne Rooney about the sting operation

Former England footballer Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen Rooney arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice during the fifth day of the high-profile trial against Coleen Rooney who is being sued for libel by Rebekah Vardy after Mrs Rooney publicly accused her of leaking private stories to the press in London, United Kingdom on May 16, 2022. (Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Wayne Rooney was apparently unaware of the Wagatha Christie sting operation. (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anyone who's followed Wagatha Christie will remember the drama of the initial social media post "outing" Vardy as the alleged leak, but Rooney has explained how she kept things so secret that even husband Wayne wasn't aware of what she was doing.

She told the court it was initially “quite hard” keeping her sting operation of posting fake stories on social media to herself: “If I wanted to find out who was doing it to me I had to keep it to myself."

Read more: David Tennant and Catherine Tate to return to Doctor Who in 2023

Asked why she did not tell her husband, Rooney replied: “One thing I don’t do is put my troubles or my worries on anyone else. I didn’t like to put pressure on anyone.”

Former England footballer Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen Rooney arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice during the fifth day of the high-profile trial against Coleen Rooney who is being sued for libel by Rebekah Vardy after Mrs Rooney publicly accused her of leaking private stories to the press in London, United Kingdom on May 16, 2022. (Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Wayne Rooney's drink drive arrest was mentioned. (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Later, Vardy's barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC referred to an article about Wayne Rooney’s arrest for drink driving, when he was caught with another woman in the car.

The barrister said it was “another apparent crisis” in their relationship and that Wayne had been “misbehaving”.

Rooney replied: “Yes there has been a few, it’s unfortunate that things have happened in my life and they get publicised, and it has happened quite a few times and I have dealt with it – we have dealt with it as a couple and as a family.”

Coleen Rooney labels Rebekah Vardy's messages about her 'evil'

Rebekah Vardy arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice, London, as the high-profile libel battle between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney continues. Picture date: Monday May 16, 2022.
Rebekah Vardy's messages were labelled 'evil' by Coleen Rooney. (PA)

Rooney told the court how Vardy had got in touch after the Wagatha Christie reveal post to deny that she was the leak and claim she had "zero interest" in Rooney's life.

Talking about Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt, Rooney said she had never met or spoken to Watt, commenting on the agent’s exchanges with Vardy: “The messages that went on between them we just evil.

“There’s no need for it, I’ve never done anything to them.”

Read more: Ex-Corrie star is voted in as town councillor

Rooney also claimed to be genuine in congratulating Vardy on her pregnancy with her fifth child, some months before the Wagatha Christie post at the centre of the case.

Asked whether she realised Vardy was “potentially vulnerable” at the time due to her pregnancy, Rooney said she “didn’t think there was anything wrong with her”.

She added: “I was being genuine as a woman, even though I had suspicions I would never ever wish any harm or anything while anyone was pregnant and that was genuine congratulations.”

The trial continues.

Watch: Rooneys and Rebekah Vardy arrive at court as Wagatha Christie trial continues