by Rebekah Vardy has accused Coleen Rooney of “weaponizing” her fan base during the so-called “Wagatha Christie” trial.
The wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy said Rooney’s decision to expose her publicly had been “creepy” and that she initially thought it was “not real”.
Last week, Vardy, 40, lost a libel battle against 36-year-old Rooney over a viral social media post, after a High Court judge found it was “substantially true”.
In the original post, Rooney said she had carried out a months-long “sting operation” and accused Vardy of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.
The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney publicly claimed that Vardy’s account was the source behind three stories in The Sun newspaper with false details she had posted on her private Instagram stories.
Vardy denied leaking stories to the media and sued his fellow footballer’s wife for libel.
Both women took part in a week-long trial at the High Court in London in May, which attracted a lot of press attention.
Speaking to The Sun, Vardy described how she had called Rooney to confront her about the original post, which was posted online in October 2019.
“I picked up the phone and called her and basically said ‘what the hell is this?’ and her response was quite, I don’t know, quite rude, quite harsh,” she said.
“She basically just said, ‘do you know what this is?’ And at the time I didn’t really know what it was.
“I read the words and you know when you read something and it’s like reading it about someone else.
“And it’s like, ‘No, this probably isn’t real.’ This can’t be real.”
She added: “No one would do something so scary knowing that they were weaponizing a fan base against someone.”
Despite the decision against her, Vardy said that if she saw Rooney “in the street tomorrow” she would “ask her if she would go for a Caffe Nero”.
“Life is too short to be resentful and hold a grudge and be bitter against someone. It’s not me. I am not that person, she said.
Vardy also told the Sun she was “scared to be out in public” after receiving up to 100 abusive messages a day.
She said some people “went the extra mile” to abuse her and even linked her to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the so-called Islamic State (IS) terror group.
– The whole thing has been terrible. At worst, I was worried about being alone, about leaving the house. I was afraid to be out in public places, she told the newspaper.
“Even the smallest things, like going shopping, were terrible.”
“Everyone always says, ‘These people wouldn’t say things to your face,’ but actually you get someone who goes the extra mile.
“The abuse I was subjected to was crazy. In the beginning there would be 100 messages a day.”
“I was linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, people suggesting I was a member of IS, things like that.
“It was like I had murdered someone.”
In another interview with TalkTV’s Kate McCann, Vardy appeared to become emotional and described feeling “let down by the justice system”.
She looked at the floor and said, “I feel let down by a lot of people, a lot of things, but most importantly I feel let down by the justice system.”
It is believed that the total legal costs for the case will be in the order of £3 million, the majority of which will now be covered by Vardy.
– Rebekah Vardy: Coleen and Me airs on TalkTV on August 3 at 7pm.
