When the WAGatha Christie trial reached its dramatic climax last week, it was Coleen Rooney who emerged victorious.
Two and a half years earlier, she carried out a 'sting operation' and accused Rebekah Vardy's Instagram account of leaking 'false stories" about her private life to the press in a now viral Instagram post.
Rebekah, 40, has always vehemently denied Coleen's accusations and launched libel proceedings in 2020.
She later admitted in a witness statement that her agent Caroline Watt could have leaked the stories in a dramatic U-turn.
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Sitting at London's High Court, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled against Rebekah, stating it was 'likely' that Ms Watt 'undertook the direct act' of passing information to The Sun.
And finding that Coleen's post was 'substantially true', she added: "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."
But what was it that set Coleen's spidey senses tingling in the first place?
Back on September 1, 2017, husband Wayne Rooney was busted drink driving behind the wheel of another woman's car after a night out with friends.
A heavily pregnant Coleen took herself and her three sons to stay with her parents while she worked out what Wayne's antics meant for their marriage.
Posting on her private Instagram account, in what has been dubbed 'the Marriage Post', Coleen uploaded a picture of her children with the caption: “No matter where I am they always follow me, and I hope that lasts forever.”
She told the court that she only allowed the post to stay up for a matter of hours before she deleted it because she wasn't good place emotionally.
“I was inundated with messages from friends and family asking if I was okay and so I decided to upload something to the Private Instagram Account. I thought it would be a way of avoiding having to speak to everyone individually in response to their messages," she explained.
"I then deleted the Marriage Post shortly after uploading it because I wasn’t in a good place at the time to be dealing with everything that was going on. The Marriage Post must have only been uploaded to the Private Instagram Account for a few hours at most before being taken down.”
That same day, Rebekah got in touch on WhatsApp to ask how she was and offer her and the kids a place to stay.
While undoubtedly a kind offer, Coleen told the court it made her suspicious because they had never been that close and it seemed out of place.
She said: “On the face of things this was obviously a nice gesture, but I did think at the time that it was a bit over the top because Becky and I weren’t particularly close friends.”
Coleen said Rebekah has previously messaged her about other stories and that, looking back, she wondered if she had been "fishing for information to pass to the media." Rebekah denies this.
The next day, a newspaper story appeared stating that: "Coleen yesterday dropped a heavy hint that she would keep the kids with her if she and Wayne do split.
"She uploaded two poignant photos of the boys on her Instagram account and wrote: 'No matter where I am they always follow me, and I hope that lasts forever.'"
Knowing that the story had been leaked, she sprung into action. But with some 300 followers, she had no idea who it was.
When a second story appeared, she issued a stern warning, posting: "The GRASS strikes again!!!….I put that picture on (the private Instagram account) wondering if it would appear in that HORRIBLE newspaper (The Sun)…You're accepted as one of my friends, if you really needed the money that bad you could have always just asked instead of being SLY!!!"
As more stories continued to leak, she narrowed down her suspects. Knowing that Rebekah had links with The Sun, she initially blocked her. But when Rebekah asked her about it, she blamed her kids and granted her access once more.
It was then that Coleen decided to hone in on Rebekah by uploading a series of fake posts that only her account could see.
The judge found that it was 'probable' that it Ms Watt sent the Marriage Post to The Sun 'with the knowledge and approval of Ms Vardy' - although this is something Rebekah denies.
Still reeling from the verdict that she didn't feel 'was just', Rebekah will tell her side of the story in a sit-down interview with TalkTV tonight.
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