A decade ago, a Euros faux pas ignited perhaps the most infamous WAG feud of all time, setting Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy on a path to that much-quoted tweet
In October 2019, four now infamous words were uttered that would shake up the world of WAGs forever – “It was Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
With commendable detective skills, Coleen Rooney unmasked the individual leaking gossip to The Sun by planting increasingly outlandish, fabricated stories that only Vardy’s account could see. When these tall tales – which included a flooded basement and a visit to a Mexican gender selection clinic – made it into print, Rooney knew she had honed in on the correct suspect.
The ensuing social media bombshell naming Rebekah ignited a multi-million-pound legal war, instantly dubbed the ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial.
Vardy vehemently denied the allegations and sued her nemesis for libel. However in July 2022, the High Court dismissed the claim, ruling that Coleen’s allegations were substantially true. This proved an expensive loss for Rebekah, who was ordered to pay 90% of Rooney’s legal fees, on top of her own, landing her with an estimated bill of £3 million.
Since then, the saga has inspired documentaries, a West End production, and even a Channel 4 docudrama. But only those who’ve studied the iconic row in detail know that the bad blood actually dates right back to June 16, 2016 – exactly ten years ago today – when a faux pas at the Euros pushed the women into an all-out cold war.
The friction started in the stands during England’s 2-1 victory against Wales. Rebekah reportedly “refused” to move after she and her entourage allegedly hijacked seats belonging to the Football Association’s family liaison officer, Harpreet Robertson. The strategic move was reportedly designed to ensure Vardy was positioned directly behind Wayne Rooney’s popular wife, Coleen. In her witness statement, Harpreet claimed that Rebekah had deliberately placed herself “right in the eyeline” of any camera fixed on Coleen in order to guarantee exposure. Harpreet, who had already allocated perfectly good seats for Rebecca’s party, recalled the confrontation: “I asked them to move, but they refused . . . remarking words to the effect of, ‘We can sit where we like, f**k off’ An altercation followed which almost reduced me to tears. I soon realised that these people were the guests of Becky.”
While Rebekah claimed she’d only sat there because Coleen’s group had inadvertently taken their original seats, Harpreet remained unconvinced.
Furthermore, the liaison officer said a “verbally abusive” Rebekah spent the match “constantly on her phone, often taking selfies and generally showing very little interest in the match itself”.
At the time, Rebekah was busily undergoing an image revamp, with the help of her trusty agent, Caroline Watt. Rebekah began working with Caroline, then with The Frontrow Partnership (FRP), in 2015, and when the PR professional struck out to forge her own firm, the media personality followed suit. In many ways, this was a successful partnership, with Caroline even bagging Rebekah a coveted spot on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
As Rebekah would later tell the High Court, she had hired former Virgin Atlantic air hostess Caroline in a bid to counteract harsh criticism she was facing, allowing her instead to tell her “truth”. Rebekah explained: “She was offering me a way to tell my side of the story, because there was so much negative press out there – article after article about me, and I never responded. She suggested I could do some interviews to put my truth across.”
While Jamie, 39, was busily representing his country, the mum-of-five was throwing herself into the publicity spotlight with vigour, including penning a ‘Euro diary’ column for The Sun, which led to issues in the England squad’s changing rooms.
The 2022 trial heard that the media distraction grew so severe that England manager Roy Hodgson urged Wayne Rooney to intervene, telling Jamie to speak to his wife about her “media activities”. Speaking outside the courtroom afterwards, Jamie declared his teammate was “talking nonsense”, and denied being told to tell Rebekah to “calm down”.
During the trial, Coleen’s legal team pulled no punches, explicitly accusing Vardy of calculated, “publicity-seeking behaviour”.
Coleen’s representative, David Sherborne, accused Rebekah of ‘jumping around like a loony” in the contentious seat in question when Jamie scored, as per the Evening Standard.
Rebekah firmly rejected this narrative, telling the court: “I wasn’t seeking attention, no. I wanted to be there to support my husband.” When asked if she was “not interested in publicity and happy to blur into the background”, Rebekah agreed. She also denied sitting behind Coleen to “boost her profile”, a notion that she dismissed as being “absolutely nonsense”.
This publicity-grabbing claim was ultimately dismissed, with Mrs Justice Steyn determining that this behaviour was “irrelevant or peripheral” to whether or not Rebekah was leaking stories. This did, however, offer an insight into the rarely seen turning of publicity wheels of the designer lives of Premier League wives.
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