Rebekah Vardy: ‘Arguing with Coleen Rooney would be as pointless as arguing with a pigeon’

Bewildered and hurt: Rebekah Vardy (pictured) says ‘the whole world hates me’ after Coleen Rooney’s explosive allegations

The phone call, made very soon after Coleen Rooney’s bombshell accusations, was something Rebekah Vardy will never forget.

‘I said to her: “Coleen, what on earth have you done?”‘ Becky says.

‘It was not an easy phone call. She said to me: “I’m not pointing the finger” and I said: “You have just annihilated me in public and hung me out to dry. The whole world hates me!”

‘I thought she was my friend but she completely annihilated me. She said: “You know, I always really liked you, which makes it harder.”‘

Did the two women argue, I ask? Becky is careful not to explicitly denounce Coleen, but says: ‘That would be like arguing with a pigeon. You can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to s*** in your hair.’

That is merely the latest colourful phrase in a dispute that has gripped a nation grateful for a delicious celebrity ding-dong to distract us in these Brexit-weary times.

It is soap opera-style saga that has made headlines around the world and even been debated on R4’s lofty Today programme.

Now, little more than 24 hours after the eruption of ‘WAGs at war’, Becky — wife of footballer Jamie Vardy — has broken her silence to speak exclusively to the Mail to put forward her side of the story.

‘If I don’t talk, then everyone will still think I did it, and the abuse will go on,’ she says.

The fallout is a long way from the camaraderie of the Euro Football Championships in 2016 when their friendship was forged (pictured)

The fallout is a long way from the camaraderie of the Euro Football Championships in 2016 when their friendship was forged (pictured)

For anyone who’s been living under a stone this week, Becky, 37, was sensationally accused by Coleen Rooney, wife of footballer Wayne, of leaking stories from her private Instagram account and selling them to a red-top newspaper.

Coleen, 33, claimed that someone she had thought was a friend had been selling stories about her ‘for years’ and so she had turned detective and placed three false stories on her account to test whether they would appear in the media.

All three were duly published in the Sun, and on Wednesday Coleen announced that the source was ‘Rebekah Vardy’s account’.

It’s fair to say that Becky, who is seven months pregnant and wasn’t given any warning that this explosive story was about to come out, has been left devastated — not only by the hurtful accusation but by the torrent of abuse that has followed.

Indeed, so vile has the internet trolling been that it is unprintable in a family newspaper.

Coleen, 33, is embroiled in a bitter row with Rebekah over claims the WAG sold stories about her

Heavily-pregnant Rebekah, pictured on holiday in Dubai, has angrily denied the claims saying it wasn't her

Coleen, (pictured today left) is embroiled in a bitter row with Rebekah (right) over Coleen’s claims that her fellow WAG may have been selling stories about her to a national newspaper 

‘Over 24 hours, this has escalated and escalated,’ she says. ‘I wasn’t going to say anything but it has gone so extreme. I have been told that I should die, that my children should die, my unborn child should die. It would be unacceptable for anyone.

‘I am tough, but this has made me cry. It is hard to explain how horrible it has been.’

Still on holiday in Dubai, Becky certainly sounds rattled, at one point breaking off from our conversation to weep.

She says that she isn’t the one to blame and has hired an expert in forensic cyber security to try to find out who might have had access to her Instagram account. 

Can anyone, though, really believe that she didn’t do it? Becky says that she hopes they can.

Her explanation, in a nutshell, is that any one of a dozen people could have snooped on Coleen’s private Instagram posts because they had Becky’s Instagram log-in and password.

Becky says that she isn't the one to blame and has hired an expert in forensic cyber security to try to find out who might have had access to her Instagram account

Becky says that she isn’t the one to blame and has hired an expert in forensic cyber security to try to find out who might have had access to her Instagram account 

‘Over the last few years, quite a few people have had access to my Instagram account, including a PR agency and an advertising agency. And, yes, I have given my password out. It is considered a normal thing to do and I never thought very hard about it.

‘I certainly never thought that something like this could happen, that someone would poach stories about another person via their Instagram,’ she said. 

She is also, it turns out, not completely convinced that the leak does come from her account. Coleen has yet to respond to requests for evidence of this from Becky’s legal team. ‘We’ve asked for the proof, but it’s not been forthcoming,’ says Becky.

It’s a long way from the camaraderie of the Euro Football Championships in 2016 when their friendship was forged.

‘I have always been very supportive of her,’ says Becky. ‘But as much as I sympathise with Coleen and the situation in which she found herself, I don’t understand why she couldn’t call me before posting it on social media and basically completely finishing my reputation and bringing all of this raining down on me.

Becky says she has always been loyal to the Rooneys, pictured celebrating an England win against Wales at the Euro Championships in 2016, have

Becky says she has always been loyal to the Rooneys, pictured celebrating an England win against Wales at the Euro Championships in 2016, have 

‘I don’t understand why she couldn’t have phoned me and said that she had some suspicions and I would have looked into it immediately.’ 

She adds: ‘We have always got on and that is what makes it all the more difficult. For instance, I messaged her when Wayne was in trouble over the drink-driving. I have been a supportive friend. 

‘She sent me a gift when my youngest Finlay was born [in January 2017] and I sent her a present when her baby Cass arrived [in February 2018]. There was never any hint of any bad blood between us or any hint that she had a suspicion about me.’

The first clue that Coleen was harbouring doubts, however, came in March this year when Becky noticed that Coleen had blocked her on her private Instagram. 

‘I sent her a message and asked her: “Have I done something, is there a problem here? I seem to be blocked on Instagram.”

‘And she said no, it was probably one of the kids messing about with her phone that had done it. She was completely convincing.’

Although Becky was then duly reinstated, unbeknown to her, it seems that Coleen then blocked everyone else. 

Becky said: ‘I do feel sorry for her in some ways, we have both been the subject of stories that are not nice and you don’t know where they have come from, but that doesn’t make it OK to just dump this on me and my family.’

Becky is keen to point out that she has always been loyal to the Rooneys.

‘I have turned down so many interviews and requests to talk about them,’ she says. 

Rebekah says she is particularly mystified by Coleen's motivation

Rebekah says she is particularly mystified by Coleen’s motivation

‘I have never felt that it was my place to talk about someone else or their relationships. I have not done anything like this and I would not do anything like this. I don’t understand what I would gain. 

‘The stories were just nonsense, they weren’t even damaging. The one about their house flooding was actually published while I was on a plane to Dubai.

‘I don’t understand what anyone would gain from the stories, and why anyone would think that I would need to sell them. It’s really sad because this is not something that I would wish upon anyone.

‘We are having a forensic cybersecurity expert look at it now, first to see if it really did come from my account.

‘I’m not an expert in social media — far from it. I only just learned how to do a re-post and had to have a lesson in how to change my format on Instagram.

‘I have no idea who it could be. I hope that we can find out what has actually gone on, that’s my aim here. When I do, I will deal with it the right way.

‘I can tell you that I would never, ever have dealt with the situation in the way that Coleen has done, that’s for sure.’

She says that since the moment the story broke on Wednesday morning, she has also had a short, sharp lesson in just who her friends really are.

Danielle Lloyd, a former WAG, went on TV yesterday to claim that she had also had issues with Becky. Although Becky says she has nothing to say on the subject, she does mutter: ‘Hypocrite.’

Another WAG, Nicola McClean, has been vocal in Becky’s defence. Becky’s husband Jamie, the Leicester City player, has been a tower of strength. ‘He’s been very distressed to see me so upset,’ she says.

The couple have two children, Finlay and Sofia, and she has two more children from previous relationships. They met in 2014 and were married in 2016.

For now, she says she has more questions than answers about what has gone on.

She is particularly mystified by Coleen’s motivation, saying: ‘It makes me wonder if there is more to this than meets the eye. For someone to go public with something like this, there has to be something bigger behind it.

‘I keep on thinking about it and trying to figure it out. It’s like trying to work out how someone does a magic trick. I don’t know what the reason is — if I had the answer I would be over the moon.

‘I don’t have any hatred or bitterness. She did what she thought was necessary. That was her decision and she will have to live with it.’

Quite where this ‘Roodunnit?’ will end remains to be seen.

Does she want an apology? ‘I think it’s gone beyond an apology, hasn’t it?’ she says.

  • Rebekah Vardy has not received any payment for this interview, but at her request a donation has been made to the mental health charity MIND

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