The social media feud turned libel trial between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy has come to a close. While a judgement isn’t expected for some time, the legal battle between two media personalities married to former England footballers has proven at least one thing – that social media is a high-risk area for defamation claims.
The feud began in October 2019, when Rooney accused Vardy of leaking information from Rooney’s private Instagram account to The Sun. Her sleuthing to name Vardy as the alleged leaker earned her the nickname “Wagatha Christie”. Vardy strongly denied the allegation and began libel proceedings in June 2020, claiming she had received a torrent of distressing abuse because of the accusations.
Historically, successful defamation claims have involved two steps. First, establishing what the ordinary, reasonable reader would have taken a statement (a press publication or social media post) to mean. Second, proving that the meaning of the statement is defamatory – namely that ordinary, reasonable members of the society would think less of the individual referred to. Recent changes to the law require that a publication must have caused, or is likely to cause, “serious harm” to the claimant’s reputation.
