Coleen Rooney is confirmed as one of the stars in the 2024 line-up for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Here! In order to bring fans up to speed with Rooney’s most dramatic exploits, ITV has made a deal with Disney Entertainment to stream Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story.
The three-part documentary, which is available on ITVX from tomorrow and on ITV 2 next month, lifts the lid on the infamous moment in recent pop culture history: when Rooney sniffed out the mole in her social circle who was leaking stories to the press.
On October 9 2019, Rooney Tweeted a screenshot of text laying out her deductions, signing off with the immortal triple ellipses: “It’s......... Rebekah Vardy’s account”.
Fans dubbed her Wagatha Christie, a portmanteau of WAG (wives and girlfriends) and famous detective novelist Agatha Christie. But the single post set in motion a chain of events that pushed Rooney and her family to the brink, a harrowing tale she only revealed the extent of in 2023 documentary The Real Wagatha Story.
This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it...... pic.twitter.com/0YqJAoXuK1
— Coleen Rooney (@ColeenRoo) October 9, 2019
When Rooney realised someone close to her was selling stories to The Sun, she laid a careful trap. By planting fake stories on her Instagram account and restricting who could see them, she effectively winnowed out suspects by seeing which false items ended up in the tabloids.
But when she made her revelations public, the prime suspect – fellow WAG Vardy – sued her for libel. A high profile court case ensued, with Rooney forced to defend her citizen detective work in front of a judge at the High Court throughout 2022.
Vardy, who is married to Leicester footballer Jamie Vardy, accused Rooney of defamation and initially won a preliminary stage in the case. But when it went to a full trial, the judge ruled that Rooney’s claim was “substantially true” and ordered Vardy to pay 90 per cent of her legal costs.
Despite her victory, stress of the legal wrangling took its toll on Rooney and her family. “It made me ill. It completely changed me as a character,” she said in the documentary. “I’m a happy person and I could see people were concerned.”
Along with a detailed timeline of the story as it played out, the documentary also provides an intimate look at Rooney’s life, exploring how the bad behaviour (drunk driving and cheating, yikes) of her husband attracted negative press attention, fuelling a micro-economy for stories about her family that proved to tempting for Vardy to resist.
And it’s still not over for Rooney. Vardy’s legal team are attempting to dispute the final bill of £1.6 million. A judge ruled last month that the amount should not be reduced, and Vardy’s team is launching an appeal. Neither women are attending the hearings, with Rooney set to appear on I’m A Celebrity from Sunday.
Vardy actually went on I’m A Celebrity back in 2017, two years before the Wagatha scandal broke. She was the third contestant to be evicted from the jungle, after viewers complained that she was “bullying” a fellow campmate.
Rooney said that I’m A Celebrity has been courting her to appear for years, but until now she felt her four children were too young for her to be away for an extended period of time. The star said she was looking forward to showing viewers a different side of her character.
“I have been in the public eye for over 20 years now and people take what they want from it,” Rooney said. “I do think people will get a better idea of what kind of person I am.”
ITV are rumoured to have offered Rooney a record-breaking deal to appear on the show, even higher than the £1.5 million fee offered to politician Nigel Farage.
Rooney also said she will miss having her phone, notebook and pen the most while she’s in the Australian jungle. Hopefully the producers can lend her some scrap paper should she need to jot down the clues to any intra-celebrity mysteries that occur. Snitches and snakes beware.
Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story will stream on ITVX from Thursday 14th November
