Last year, the UK was transfixed by the saga of Wagatha Christie. Now, the person who started it all is getting her own documentary – and Disney+ has finally released a trailer.
Titled Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha story, the gripping mystery saga will air on October 18. The trailer shows Rooney in a pink top looking defiant as she speaks to the camera: “They are my words, and I stick by them,” she says. The trailer then shows clips of Rooney attending high court, overlayed with narration from a news anchor commentating on the captivating case.
The documentary has been a long time coming. In 2019, Rooney dramatically accused fellow footballer’s wife Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories about her to the press with a long post on Instagram. Rooney turned detective, trying to find the person who was responsible for giving details of her personal life to the media by posting fake posts and seeing which ones showed up in the tabloids.
"I needed evidence," says Rooney in the nearly two-minute trailer. "I had to set a trap."
When certain posts made it into the papers, Rooney was convinced she had found the culprit. She shared her discovery with her social media followers, finishing her lengthy post with the now-infamous words: “it’s……. Rekebah Vardy’s account.”
Vardy responded by flatly denying Rooney’s accusation and suing her for libel. The case finally made it to trial in summer 2022 (spawning headlines galore) which Vardy eventually lost.
In her ruling, the judge, Ms Justice Steyn, explained that Vardy was “directing Ms Watt [her agent] to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt".
She then added, "I have found that Ms Vardy and Ms Watt have deliberately deleted or destroyed evidence."
Disney+’s upcoming three-part documentary will examine the sensational trial, as well as Rooney’s twenty-plus years in the public spotlight since her marriage to footballer Wayne Rooney.
It also promises exclusive access to the woman at the heart of the case, including interviews with her friends and family, as well as her legal team. Rooney has rarely spoken about her part in the Wagatha saga – with the exception of an interview with Vogue earlier this year, in which she described what it felt like to sit opposite Vardy in court.
“It was so weird that first day, actually sitting on a bench together," Rooney explained. "It was so difficult in that courtroom, [...] especially watching her on the stand. It was quite painful. I felt uneasy."
