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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Claudia Cockerell

Coleen Rooney on how the 'Wagatha' saga took its toll on her mental health

It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since those infamous words shook the Twittersphere: “It’s………. Rebekah Vardy’s account”. But what was Coleen Rooney doing on the day she posted that tweet, which led to the saga now known as Wagatha Christie?

“The day I put it up, my eldest was off school so I’d promised to take him and his friend to indoor skydiving,” Rooney told the audience at a screening of her new documentary at the Soho Hotel this week. Her phone was ringing off the hook and her son had to tell her off, saying, “Mum, put your phone down!”

After the screening, Rooney said that husband Wayne had told her to “just delete” her private Instagram account when she suspected someone, but she refused to concede defeat. “I enjoy it – when it’s private – and I wasn’t going to back down and delete it because one person was – one account,” she corrects herself, “was doing it.”

But while Coleen’s detective work captured the nation, it also took its toll on her wellbeing. “I lost a lot of time while that was going on,” she said. “Even though I was physically there looking after my children and being a wife, mentally I just wasn’t. And I’ve gone through some really tough times in my life but that was just a different level.” Coleen didn’t tell anyone about her plot to expose her informer – not even her mother or Wayne.

And what of her court wardrobe? Every day of the trial, the two WAGs were snapped as they headed into the High Court in London. While Vardy often stole the sartorial show, pairing Chanel dresses and sherbet yellow co-ords with huge sunglasses, Rooney wasn’t in the mood for having fun. “On the lead up to it I thought I’d be out of that boot,” she said, referencing the foot brace she wore throughout the trial after breaking her toe. “So I did have a few outfits lined up, and then I had to run to the tailors to get my pants all taken up because I couldn’t wear heels.”

She cobbled together outfits from her wardrobe and bought a few extra pieces from high street stores like Zara. “I wasn’t gonna spend a fortune on a court wardrobe that I was never going to wear again,” she added, saying she was much more focused on her “holiday wardrobe”. Coleen left the trial a day early to jet off to Dubai with Wayne and their sons.

As well as the series, which airs on Disney Plus today, Coleen has a book coming out in November. And once all the furore has died down? “I’m just looking forward to a nice family Christmas.”

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