Rebekah Vardy arrives at Dancing On Ice rehearsals as libel battle with Coleen Rooney kicks off

Rebekah Vardy cut a sombre figure as she arrived for Dancing on Ice rehearsals this morning as her high-profile libel battle against Coleen Rooney got under way.

Vardy made headlines around the world last year when her rival Wag publicly claimed her Instagram account was the source of leaked stories about her private life.

The wife of Premier League footballer Jamie Vardy is taking part in next year’s series of the ITV show, hosted by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.

Her professional skating partner on the ITV show, Andy Buchanan, arrived separately holding two coffees.

Rebekah Vardy libel proceedings
Rebekah Vardy
PA

Rooney, 34, accused Vardy, 38, in October 2019 of leaking stories about her private life to the media – with the former swiftly dubbed “Wagatha Christie” for her apparent sleuthing work.

She published her findings with the accusatory conclusion: “It’s... Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

Vardy, who was heavily pregnant at the time, filed a libel claim, saying she had been slurred and the incident left her fearing she would suffer a miscarriage.

As part of the case, Mr Justice Warby will be asked to determine the “natural and ordinary” meaning of Rooney’s posts on Instagram and Twitter which accused Vardy of leaking stories about her.

Rebekah Vardy libel proceedings
Rebekah Vardy 
PA

Beginning Thursday’s hearing, Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Vardy, said it was not a “trivial” incident.

“The fact that both women are married to professional footballers has led to this action being trivialised in some media coverage as ‘Wag wars’ but the impact on Mrs Vardy was not trivial,

“She has been subjected to an undue and unjustified attack that has had, and continues to have, an impact on her.”

He said Mrs Rooney’s accusation “leaves the reasonable reader in no doubt that the defendant is accusing the claimant of consistently and repeatedly betraying her trust over several years”.

He added: “In fact, she did nothing wrong. Whatever leaks there were did not come from her.”

Mr Tomlinson said Mrs Rooney’s post featured “a build-up to the ‘big reveal’ of the identity of the person responsible”, adding: “The description of the defendant’s detective work makes it clear that the claimant is being said to be responsible for the leaking of the three specific stories mentioned.”

Mrs Rooney claimed Mrs Vardy leaked three “false stories” she posted on Instagram about “gender selection in Mexico”, Mrs Rooney returning to TV, and the basement in her new house flooding.

Coleen Rooney 
Getty Images

Mrs Vardy’s lawyers argue that the meaning of Mrs Rooney’s posts was that she had “consistently and repeatedly betrayed the defendant’s trust over several years by leaking the defendant’s private and personal Instagram posts and stories for publication in The Sun”.

Mrs Rooney’s legal team say the posts mean “there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the claimant was responsible for consistently passing on information about the defendant’s private Instagram posts and stories to The Sun newspaper”.

David Sherborne, representing Mrs Rooney, said in written submissions: “It is true that the claimant was responsible for consistently passing on information about the defendant’s private Instagram posts and stories to The Sun, and that this was part of her history and practice of providing private information to the press, especially The Sun, with whom she had a very close relationship.”

He said Mrs Rooney’s post accusing Mrs Vardy of leaking the stories “followed earlier warnings which the defendant had been forced to post publicly, as well as privately, as a result of information from her private social media accounts being leaked to The Sun”.

He added: “The defendant was so concerned that she even posted a number of fake stories on her private Instagram account in order to discover where the leak was coming from.”

Mr Sherborne told the court Mrs Rooney conducted a “sting operation” to find out the source of the leaks, and “deliberately limited the accessibility to this private account and the sting operation stories” to just Mrs Vardy.

He said: “The fact that these sting operation stories also then appeared in The Sun, after access to her private account was limited to just the @beckyvardy account, is the reason why the defendant published the post which is the subject of this claim.

“The impression the reader would take away would be the essential message, that it was Rebekah Vardy’s account that was the source of private stories about the defendant appearing in The Sun – not Rebekah Vardy herself.

“The impression the post gives the ordinary reader stops short of guilt.”

In her written claim filed with the court, Mrs Vardy said she had worried she would lose her baby because of the stress as she was pregnant at the time.

She also “suffered extreme distress, hurt, anxiety and embarrassment as a result of the publication of the post and the events which followed”, her lawyers allege.

Neither Mrs Vardy nor Mrs Rooney attended the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

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