Asked by Mr Sherborne if she respects other people’s privacy, Vardy replied: “Yes, I do.” Rooney’s barrister then referred to an interview Vardy gave to the News Of The World in 2004, in which she revealed details of a claimed sexual encounter with pop star Peter Andre.
The barrister read excerpts from the article, in which it was claimed Andre had managed “just five minutes of sex with Rebekah” and in which she said he had “the smallest trouser equipment I’ve ever seen”, that was like a “miniature chipolata”.
He asked Vardy if giving the interview was “respectful” of Andre. “I was forced into a situation by my ex-husband to do this,” she told the court. “It is something that I deeply regret… It is not nice to read and I understand why this is being used and to me this is mudslinging and I was also threatened with mudslinging by Mrs Rooney’s team.”
Asked the question again by Mr Sherborne, Vardy replied: “The circumstances around it were completely different.”
The key points from the opening day of the trial
• Witness statement details how Vardy felt when she learned about Rooney’s post – saying she thought she might faint
• ‘This is a detective story,’ Rooney’s lawyer tells the court, and there are only ‘two real suspects’ – Vardy and her agent, Caroline Watt. If Vardy told Watt to leak the stories ‘that makes her just as responsible as the person who pulled the trigger’, he says – like ‘hiring a hitman’
• Vardy’s lawyer says Rooney was ‘revelling in the attention’ of comparisons to Scooby Doo and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple after her social media post went viral
• Rooney’s lawyer says she told no one of her sleuthing, not even her husband Wayne Rooney – who is now listed as a witness
• Details of Euro 2016 seat row revealed in court – when Vardy allegedly told Rooney to ‘f*** off’
• The court hears of vile abusive messages sent to Vardy after Rooney published her allegation
Asked the question again by Mr Sherborne, Vardy replied: “The circumstances around it were completely different.”
The key points from the opening day of the trial
• Witness statement details how Vardy felt when she learned about Rooney’s post – saying she thought she might faint
• ‘This is a detective story,’ Rooney’s lawyer tells the court, and there are only ‘two real suspects’ – Vardy and her agent, Caroline Watt. If Vardy told Watt to leak the stories ‘that makes her just as responsible as the person who pulled the trigger’, he says – like ‘hiring a hitman’
• Vardy’s lawyer says Rooney was ‘revelling in the attention’ of comparisons to Scooby Doo and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple after her social media post went viral
• Rooney’s lawyer says she told no one of her sleuthing, not even her husband Wayne Rooney – who is now listed as a witness
• Details of Euro 2016 seat row revealed in court – when Vardy allegedly told Rooney to ‘f*** off’
• The court hears of vile abusive messages sent to Vardy after Rooney published her allegation
Coleen Rooney, the wife of former England star Wayne, was dubbed “Wagatha Christie” after publicly claiming in October 2019 that Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, shared three fake stories, which she posted on her personal Instagram account, with The Sun newspaper.
Under English defamation law, Rooney must prove her post was “substantially true”. The full trial is set to last seven days and follows months of preliminary hearings, with her husband Wayne among those listed to give evidence.
Wayne Rooney appeared alongside his wife in court on Tuesday, but there was no sign of Jamie Vardy during the first day of the hearing.
‘I thought I was going to pass out’: Vardy’s reaction to Rooney’s social media post
In a witness statement submitted to the court, Vardy detailed how she learned of Rooney’s allegations while she was on holiday in Dubai and seven months pregnant.
“I started to get really hot and suffered from strange palpitations,” she wrote. “Loads of messages started coming through on my mobile phone and I was seeing these messages on Instagram calling me names: “f****** rat”, “f****** b*tch”…
“I was in such a heightened state of emotion because I was heavily pregnant and it felt like the whole world was caving in on me. I must have been in shock. I remember getting out of the car and I was shaking and thought I was going to be sick. I felt extremely paranoid and like everyone in the beach club was looking at me. I thought I was going to pass out and Jamie decided we needed to leave straight away.”
Vardy went on to say that she does not “fully remember the journey back to the hotel because I was almost hyperventilating”.
She continued: “I knew that I had not done anything wrong. I had not leaked those stories and I did not even know what posts I was supposed to have leaked. I started getting really bad pains in my stomach when we got back to the hotel. They were contraction type pains and I panicked that the baby was in danger. I made myself calm down and tried to think clearly.”
Vardy v Rooney: The lawyers’ opening arguments
In written submissions to the court, Vardy’s barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC said that while the case has been trivialised as “WAG Wars” it has had a “very profound” impact on her life, leading to “high intensity abuse and vilification”.
She has suffered “immense distress” as a result of Rooney’s now infamous allegations and “had no choice” but to take her to court “to establish her innocence and vindicate her reputation”, Mr Tomlinson said.
AMN/Media Report/UK
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