Rebekah Vardy described Coleen Rooney as a 'c**t' and a 'nasty bitch' in private Whatsapp messages, the High Court heard during the explosive Wagatha Christie libel trial.
WAG Rebekah has today lost her case against Coleen with the judge in the case saying it was "likely that Rebekah's agent at the time, Caroline Watt, "undertook the direct act" of passing information to The Sun.
Justice Steyn added: "Nonetheless, the evidence … clearly shows, in my view, that Mrs Vardy knew of and condoned this behaviour, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt 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."
During the explosive High Court trial, messages between Vardy and her agent said of Rooney: "She's such a d**k.''
She added of Rooney in a further exchange: "She's a nasty b***h. I have taken a big dislike to her. She thinks she's amazing.''
In a further message Vardy expressed her frustration that some of the leaked information had not yet been published.
"We still need to make money,'' she wrote.
David Sherborne, for Rooney, told the court during the trial Rooney felt Vardy's agent Watt should be included in the case as she leaked the information.
He said: "Mrs Vardy knew exactly what Ms Watt was doing. Mrs Vardy encouraged her to do it. She knew it was happening.
`"That is the reason to bring Ms Watt into the proceedings''
The judge said in her ruling today: “In my judgment, the conclusions that I have reached as to the extent to which the claimant engaged in disclosing to The Sun information to which she only had access as a permitted follower of an Instagram account which she knew, and Mrs Rooney repeatedly asserted, was private, suffice to show the single meaning is substantially true.”
Rebekah, 39, sued Coleen, 35, for libel over an Instagram post she made in October 2019 in which she claimed Rebekah's account was behind a number of stories which had appeared in the papers. The post led Coleen to be labelled Wagatha Christie.
Rebekah, wife of Leceister City striker Jamie, vehemently denied being involved in the leaking of stories from Coleen's page.
Coleen set up her own sting operation to catch whoever had been passing on information from her private page to the press.
She said she posted a series of fake stories and blocked all her followers apart from Rebekah's account.
Rebekah denied she was behind the leaks, insisting a number of people had access to her Instagram page, and sued for libel in a bid to clear her name
Mr Sherborne said the `motive' for the leaks was animosity between Vardy and Rooney. "There was clear animosity and hostility on the part of Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt towards Mrs Rooney.
"There were a number of abusive comments about Mrs Rooney some of which I have touched on.''
Mr Sherborne accused Vardy and Watt of concocting a story to `cover up that they were responsible' for the leaks.
After Rooney publicly declared the leaks came from Vardy's account Vardy contacted her denying it.
She warned Rooney she would be forced to apologise because she was not the culprit.
Vardy told Rooney: "On my kids' lives I have never spoken to anyone about you.
"I like you a lot Coleen.''
In January 2019, Mrs Rooney tweeted: "It’s sad to think someone who I have accepted to follow me is betraying for either money or to keep a relationship with the press."
That same day, Mrs Vardy asked Ms Watts whether she has seen the tweet, to which Ms Watts said: “Such a victim. Poor Coleen…And it wasn’t someone she trusted. It was me."
It also emerged in court, that Mrs Rooney is relying upon the fact that, as allegedly revealed by WhatsApp exchanges between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt, the pair were involved in the disclosure of private information which she held about a well-known England footballer, simply named "Mr X" , to The Sun.
When Mrs Rooney's infamous post blaming Mrs Vardy's account was published, Ms Vardy messaged her publicist, saying: "That's war."
The PR agent replied: “You will have to say that you don’t speak to anyone about her but that recently your insta has even been following people you don’t follow and she should come to you first and asked you about it.
"So you could have changed your password. Just say you have allowed a company to access it for sponsored posts and a former social media agency that you worked with too”.
Mrs Vardy then contacted Rooney, saying: "On my kids' lives, I have never spoken to anyone about you."
She then goes on to say the "exact" words her publicist told her to, Mrs Rooney's legal team claimed.
The court also heard that Ms Watt's phone was "dropped overboard" into the North Sea shortly after the order of that phone was ordered by a court.
Around the same time, it was said, media files from Mrs Vardy’s WhatsApp conversation with Ms Watt also disappeared, along with the backups, whilst in the process of exporting it to her solicitors.
From marriage troubles in the Rooney household, to Rebekah fearing she would lose her unborn baby after the Wagatha Christie post went public, both rivals poured their hearts out as they took to the stand.
