Coleen Rooney reportedly planted 'up to 39 false stories' about herself in a bid to find the mole who was selling stories to the media.
Just three of the made-up stories appeared in the media before the wife of football legend, Wayne Rooney, came to the conclusion former friend Rebekah Vardy's Instagram account was behind the leaks. Coleen cunningly closed her Instagram Stories to every single one of her followers, except Rebekah Vardy's account, which helped her to determine who was behind it.
Like many celebrities, Mrs Rooney has two Instagram accounts. One is for all her fans, and a second, secret, account that is private to all but her closest family and friends. It was the secret account that Mrs Rooney used to bait the story-seller with three pieces of fake information to see if she would get a nibble.
READ MORE: Rebekah Vardy admits agent may have leaked Coleen Rooney stories
Mrs Rooney admitted to her crafty scheme to catch the leak out as she released a statement on her Instagram. In it she wrote: "Over the past five months I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into The S*n newspaper. And you know what, they did!"
She went on to publicly name Rebekah Vardy's Instagram account as the one behind the leaks, and has since been dubbed “Wagatha Christie”. Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies the accusations and is now suing Mrs Rooney for libel.
We take a look back at some of the falsified stories. Here are the three that appeared in the media first.
Heading to Mexico to look into gender selection treatment
The first fake story was published in the British media on August 15. It was about Mrs Rooney and her husband Wayne heading to Mexico to look into gender selection treatment. The so-called source claimed Mrs Rooney would love to have a daughter and so had flown out to Mexico where the controversial treatment is legal.
Coleen returning to TV
Another story followed on September 28. It was about Mrs Rooney planning to return to TV by holding talks with the BBC about signing up for Strictly Come Dancing the following year. This story led to further reports claiming Wayne had begged his wife not to do it.
£20million mansion flooding
For the third story, Mrs Rooney had pretended that Rooneys' brand new £20million mansion had suffered a flood in recent bad weather. The source claimed the couple were "devastated" by the destruction, which came just before their planned move back to the UK from Washington, DC.
The libel trial between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney is due to begin on Tuesday, May 10.
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