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if anyone wants some lighter moments away from the amber and Johnny thread, this is the place

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Rebekah Vardy "had no choice" but to bring a libel claim against Coleen Rooney, the High Court has been told.

Mrs Vardy's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson said she needed to "establish her innocence and vindicate her reputation".

She is suing Mrs Rooney for claiming that she leaked private information to The Sun newspaper in 2019.

As the so-called Wagatha Christie trial got under way on Tuesday, Mrs Rooney's barrister David Sherborne said the case was "essentially about betrayal".

Mrs Vardy is expected to give evidence on Tuesday or Wednesday, while Mrs Rooney is due to do so Friday. Her husband, the former England footballer Wayne, is due to give evidence as a witness next week.

he row broke out in 2019 after Mrs Rooney posted online that fake stories had been leaked to The Sun, which she claimed could only have been seen by Mrs Vardy's Instagram account.

She was later dubbed Wagatha Christie after saying she had carried out an investigation to find out who was behind the leaks.

Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, strenuously denied being the source of the leaks.

She posted her defence on social media at the time, saying a number of people had access to her accounts. When no public apology came from Mrs Rooney, Mrs Vardy, in June 2020, decided to sue her for libel.
Mr Tomlinson, for Mrs Vardy, said on Tuesday that, if information had been leaked, "this was not something that was done with Mrs Vardy's knowledge or authority".

He said there was "no information" in any evidence to demonstrate that Mrs Vardy had even viewed Mrs Rooney's Instagram posts during the alleged "sting operation".

The fake stories posted by Mrs Rooney included planning her return to TV, travelling to Mexico for a "gender selection" procedure and her basement flooding.

Mr Tomlinson said the affair and subsequent libel case had garnered huge press coverage and had become a source of "entertainment" in the media.

But he added: "This is far from being an entertaining case. It has been profoundly distressing and disturbing."

Mr Tomlinson added: "[Mrs Vardy] needs to be able to clear her name through this case, so she can move on from this terrible episode."

He said that as a result of Mrs Rooney's post, Mrs Vardy - who was seven months pregnant at the time - and her family were subjected to abuse, including posts saying she should die.

With pride and reputations at stake on both sides, the onus is on the defendant, Mrs Rooney, to prove that it was in fact Mrs Vardy who leaked the stories.

Mr Sherborne, for Mrs Rooney, told the court: "She's not here because she wants to be, she's here because she has to be."

Her investigation into the leaks was "deeply upsetting" for Mrs Rooney and made her feel "paranoid", he told the court.

In a pre-trial hearing less than two weeks before the trial began, Mrs Rooney's barrister said Mrs Vardy now "appears to accept" that her own PR agent, Caroline Watt, was the source of leaked stories.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61372222