Coleen Rooney has revealed that the stress of Rebekah Vardy’s libel case against her left her ill with reactive arthritis.
The wife of Wayne Rooney opens up about the ordeal in her documentary, Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, set to be released next Wednesday on Disney+.
The three-part docuseries will detail how Rooney turned amateur online sleuth to find an explanation for why private stories about her and her family continued to appear in the media.
It will also look at the circumstances around her viral social media post in which she said she had carried out a months-long “sting operation” and accused Vardy, the wife of footballer Jamie Vardy, of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.
In an extract from the show, obtained by OK!, Rooney discusses the toll the case took on her and her health, revealing it caused her to have a reactive arthritis flare-up.
“It caused anxiety and there were lots of tears. I have reactive arthritis. I’ve had it previously, but this situation brought it on a lot more,” she recalled.
Reactive arthritis is a condition that causes redness and swelling in joints in the body, especially the knees, feet, toes, hips and ankles.
“It stripped me of my character, and I didn’t want to socialise with people. I was completely in my own world. It was not a nice place to be,” Rooney said.
In a trial that gripped the nation last summer, Vardy, 40, lost a libel battle against 36-year-old Rooney over the post, after a High Court judge found it was “substantially true”.
Her sleuthing efforts saw her dubbed “Wagatha Christie” in reference to the popular mystery writer.
The fake stories 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.
In the post on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, she then 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.”
