Hopes of an armistice in war of WAGS

Rebekah Vardy viciously described fellow WAG Coleen Rooney as a ‘c***’ and a ‘nasty bitch’ while revealing she wanted to leak stories about her in a series of heated WhatsApp exchanges with her agent, the High Court heard today.

The claims regarding the extraordinary messages featured in the latest round of the costly legal battle between the two women after Ms Rooney accused Ms Vardy of leaking the stories to The Sun following a social media ‘sting operation’ she conducted to find the culprit, earning her the nickname ‘Wagatha Christie.’

Lawyers for Ms Rooney, 35, appeared at the High Court requesting a judge order full disclosure of all communication between Ms Vardy, 39, and her agent Caroline Watt, who they argued worked together to leak the stories. 

In one message between the two, it was claimed, Ms Vardy declared ‘It’s war’ after Ms Rooney publicly named her as the source of the leaks in October 2019.

During another exchange after Ms Rooney had been involved in a car crash and posted about it on Instagram, it is claimed Ms Vardy wrote in a WhatsApp message to Ms Watt: ‘She’s a nasty bitch x’ and added: ‘Would love to leak those stories.’

Ms Watt replied: ‘I would have tried to have done a story on Coleen but the evidence has been deleted x,’ with Ms Vardy then passing on details about the post to her. 

A mock-up of the texts exchanged by Ms Vardy and her agent, Caroline Watt 

The court heard that the two women then discussed leaking the story to The Sun with Ms Watt writing to Ms Vardy a few days later that a journalist from the newspaper is ‘trying to do a story on Coleen crashing her car but her PR won’t even reply. I’ve told him I’m 100% confident that it happened but don’t know how’.

‘She deffo did,’ Ms Vardy responded. 

An article then appeared on January 25, 2019 about Ms Rooney being involved in a car crash, prompting her to take to Twitter where she fumed that ‘someone on my private Instagram…. is telling or selling stories to a certain newspaper.’

She added: ‘It’s sad to think someone who I have accepted to follow me is betraying me either for money or to keep a relationship with the press.’

In a subsequent WhatsApp exchange, the court heard, Ms Vardy messaged Ms Watt, saying: ‘U seen Coleen’s Twitter.’

Ms Watt replied: ‘Such a victim. Poor Coleen…. And it wasn’t someone she trusted. It was me.’

A few days later the two women discussed via WhatsApp a picture posted by Ms Rooney in her car which appeared to show one of her children not wearing a seatbelt.

Ms Watt warned her that because it was on Ms Rooney’s private Instagram, ‘we can’t do anything with it.’ She added: ‘She has taken it down now too.’

Ms Vardy fumed: ‘She’s such a d*** x.’

Another exchange, the court heard, showed Ms Vardy complaining how Ms Rooney ‘thinks it’s me that’s been doing stories on her’. 

‘I know x’, Ms Watt replied. 

‘That c*** needs to get over herself! X,’ wrote Ms Vardy, before adding: ‘Someone on her Instagram regularly sells stories on her though x.’ 

Ms Watt said: ‘Because she is private she can remove you as a follower and it stops you from seeing her page x.’ 

‘What a joke! All I’ve ever been is nice to her though! Even when Wayne was being a c*** x,’ Ms Vardy said.  

Coleen Rooney (pictured leaving her Cheshire home yesterday) wants Mrs Vardy and her long-serving aide Caroline Watt to disclose details of their private communications

During another exchange after Ms Rooney had been involved in a car crash and posted about it on Instagram, it is claimed Ms Vardy wrote in a WhatsApp message to Ms Watt (pictured): ‘She’s a nasty bitch x’. They are pictured together at the National Television Awards 

Other WhatsApp messages between Ms Vardy and Ms Watt show them discussing a post from Ms Rooney in April 2019, in which she hinted that she was travelling to Mexico for gender selection.

It later emerged that this was a deliberately false post as part of her attempts to uncover who was behind the leaks.

Ms Rooney’s lawyers are also requesting that Ms Watt be added as an additional party to their claim that her private information was misused by Ms Vardy.

In a court document, Ms Rooney’s lawyers insisted that only excerpts of communication between Ms Vardy and Ms Watt have been provided, many of them heavily redacted and that there has been a deliberate attempt not to hand everything.

Ms Rooney’s lawyers maintain that seeing the redacted messages was a coincidence after they used an IT programme to read evidence they had been sent which exposed them. 

But they argued that from what they have received so far, it proves their case but now all of the evidence must be handed over for the matter to be decided fairly.

Ms Rooney’s lawyers claimed that Ms Watt has not provided the mobile phone she used at the time for examination, insisting that she dropped it in the North Sea while on a family holiday just days after being ordered to hand it over by a High Court judge.

Ms Vardy has also insisted that all WhatsApp audio and images exchanged with Ms Watt were ‘accidentally lost’ not just from her phone but all backups as she was attempting to send them to her solicitors.

Ms Rooney’s lawyers are also demanding all communication between Ms Vardy and Ms Watt and a number of journalists at The Sun as well as full disclosure of any payments made to them by the newspaper.

Former friends: Ms Vardy and Ms Rooney celebrate England’s win against Wales at Stade Bollaert-Delelis in France (2016)

At the same time, Ms Vardy’s legal team are also demanding full disclosure of communication between Ms Rooney and football agent Paul Stretford plus a number of other people who they maintain were involved in assisting or advising her over the ‘sting operation.’

The document submitted by Ms Rooney’s lawyers said: ‘From the outset, Mrs Vardy has always claimed that neither she nor Ms Watt were involved in the leaking of private information from Mrs Rooney’s Instagram account. The recent disclosure has shown that this is emphatically not the case.’

The feud between the two women erupted after Ms Rooney publicly claimed her fellow footballer’s wife shared fake stories she had posted on her personal Instagram with the paper.

She declared that she eventually narrowed down who could see them until they were only accessible to Ms Vardy, who denied the allegations and started libel proceedings against her.

A full trial is scheduled for April and is expected to cost both women a combined £1 million in legal fees.

Ms Rooney’s lawyers maintain that seeing the redacted messages was a coincidence after they used an IT programme to read evidence they had been sent which exposed them. 

Demanding that all communication evidence be handed over to them, Ms Rooney’s lawyers argued: ‘They plainly demonstrate that (a) Ms Watt was regularly accessing and monitoring Mrs Rooney’s Private Instagram Account using Mrs Vardy’s Private Instagram Account for the purpose, and Mrs Vardy was well aware and approved of this; (b) Mrs Vardy had a habitual pattern of leaking private information (about Mrs Rooney).’

The messages uncovered by Ms Rooney’s legal team were also said to challenge earlier denials by Ms Vardy that she did not help to orchestrate a picture of the two and other WAGS outside a St Petersburg restaurant during the 2018 World Cup that appeared in The Sun.

The court heard a message exchange between Ms Vardy and Ms Watt shows them coordinating the photo without the rest of the group being aware of it.

Ms Rooney’s legal team also claimed in court documents that full disclosure of evidence will also prove that Ms Vardy was the author of The Sun’s Secret Wag column and was also behind the leaking of sensitive information about one high profile England footballer who it was alleged in the newspaper article, had a secret love child.

The hearing continues.