Enlarge image
Coleen Rooney (l.) And Rebekah Vardy (r.): Dispute in court
Photo: Danny Lawson;
Owen Humphreys / dpa
Your men once faced each other on the pitch in the English Premier League, they are now meeting in court: the defamation trial against Coleen Rooney, who was sued by Rebekah Vardy, began in London on Tuesday.
The wife of former England striker Wayne Rooney had publicly accused the wife of former England striker Jamie Vardy of leaking private information to The Sun tabloid.
Vardy then sued Rooney for defamation.
Rebekah Vardy is now defending the decision in court.
She had no choice but to "prove her innocence and restore her reputation," her lawyer Hugh Tomlinson told London's Royal Courts of Justice.
The allegation that Rebekah Vardy leaked fabricated private information about Coleen Rooney to a tabloid is false.
Coleen Rooney has no evidence to support her claims, Tomlinson said.
It is known that other people such as PR professionals also have access to private accounts.
PR agent to blame?
Rooney's attorney, David Sherborne, is now seeing signs that Vardy's public relations agent could be the main culprit.
However, it is questionable whether Vardy had commissioned her to pierce the messages or whether the agent had acted of her own accord and lied to her client.
The woman is on long-term sick leave and is absent from court.
An important piece of evidence, her mobile phone with chat histories, has disappeared – she allegedly accidentally fell into the North Sea.
Rooney was joined in court by her famous husband on Tuesday.
In October 2019, she announced on social networks that she had long suspected that someone from her circle of friends was giving private information to the press.
She then blocked all accounts on her private Instagram account except for Rebekah Vardy and posted several made-up stories – which then found their way into the Sun newspaper.
So Vardy was the one responsible, Rooney concluded.
Rooney earned the nickname "Wagatha Christie" in the English media for her detective work.
Rooney persists in allegations
Attorney Tomlinson said Vardy had tried unsuccessfully to settle the case out of court several times.
But Rooney neither deleted nor retracted her allegation.
That's why both Rebekah and Jamie Vardy have been victims of horrible insults on the internet and in the football stadium.
Several trial days are scheduled for the process.
The case is said to have cost both women hundreds of thousands of pounds each.
Jamie Vardy plays for the English first division club Leicester City, Wayne Rooney is now coach of the relegated second division club Derby County.
Both are reluctant to make public statements in the dispute between their wives.
ptz/dpa/AFP