Rebekah Vardy has won the first round in her legal battle with Coleen Rooney, dubbed by the UK press as WAGatha Christie.
The pair - among England’s most famous WAGs (Wives And Girlfriends) - have been engaged in a spat since October 2019 when Mrs Rooney claimed in an Instagram post she had found the person responsible for the media leaks.
Mr Justice Warby isn't a cynic, he thinks that some celebrities run their own social media. #WagathaChristie pic.twitter.com/eKdiElnLbn
— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) November 20, 2020
In a High Court ruling handed down on Friday, 20 November, Mr Justice Warby ruled that Mrs Rooney’s post "clearly identified" Mrs Vardy as being “guilty of the serious and consistent breach of trust that she alleges.”
Mrs Rooney, 34, claimed she had carried out a sting operation to smoke out the culprit and then pointed the finger at Mrs Vardy, 38, who has insisted she is innocent.
Mrs Rooney claimed Mrs Vardy shared fake stories she deliberately posted on the Instagram account with The Sun.
Many interesting media law aspects of Coleen Rooney’s libel defence. But this extended textual analysis by her lawyers on the true meaning of “It’s............ Rebekah Vardy’s account” is best. pic.twitter.com/XdKILHmvpR
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) November 19, 2020
Lawyers for Mrs Rooney claimed she had only suggested someone with access to Mrs Vardy’s Instagram account was responsible for the leaks.
But Mr Justice Warby said: "There is ‘no hint’ in the post that Ms Vardy’s account could be accessed or operated by anyone other than the named account holder. I do not consider that the ‘hint’ can be supplied by resorting to alleged ‘common knowledge’ that people like Ms Vardy have teams to curate their social media output."
The pair will now face off in a full hearing next February.
