Original subtitles

This programme contains very strong language.

For a few years now,

someone who I trusted on my personal Instagram account

has been consistently informing the Sun newspaper

of my private posts.

I came up with an idea.

I blocked everyone from viewing my stories except for one account.

I posted a series of false stories

to see if they found their way into The Sun.

And you know what? They did.

It's...

..Rebekah Vardy's account.

A very public row has broken

out between the wives of two high-profile footballers.

She conducted an undercover sting operation.

Feels like the start of something quite explosive.

Rebekah Vardy has announced this week that she plans

to sue Coleen Rooney for defamation.

On one side is Coleen Rooney. TV presenter, columnist

and wife of former England footballer, Wayne Rooney.

On the other side is Rebekah Vardy, former model, reality TV contestant,

and wife of Leicester City striker, Jamie Vardy.

I've been in touch with Coleen

and she was hoping it could get solved without having

to go to the High Court. I mean look

this is gonna be costing over millions,

court is very scary. Not a nice place to be.

But neither were gonna back down and neither was gonna say sorry.

Coleen does feel she had every right to out Rebekah on this.

Why is everyone so fascinated by this story?

Revenge, vengeance, people can't get enough of it,

I mean, broadsheet papers, the tabloid papers,

people in the supermarket saying to each other "what do you think?

"Do you think she did it? Do you think she didn't do it?"

Is there really any doubt that she did it? It's fascinating.

I think every emoji that could have been hit was hit,

every WhatsApp group chat lit up.

I'm not saying that Coleen's a bad person

and as someone that's been in this industry now for

a long time with her level of following,

if you post this, this is what's gonna happen.

She's had quite a lot of bad press anyway.

She's somebody who does rub people up the wrong way.

Because people don't like her as much as they like Coleen.

What happens here if she is telling the truth and she didn't do it?

Court rise.

My Lady. On the 9th of October 2019,

Mrs Rooney accused Mrs Vardy of being

the person who had regularly leaked information about her

from her private Instagram account to The Sun newspaper.

As a result, Mrs Vardy and her family were subjected to abuse

and threats of a really horrific nature.

But, the allegation in the post was false.

Mrs Vardy had not leaked information about Mrs Rooney.

There is a great focus in

Mrs Rooney's argument in this trial on the role of Caroline Watt.

Ms Watt and Mrs Vardy were great friends

over a number of years in addition to their professional relationship.

The court will hear a lot about

the WhatsApp messages they exchanged.

Mrs Vardy accepts that it is possible that

Ms Watt had some involvement in the leaking

of information from Mrs Rooney's private Instagram account.

That is not something she knew anything about

and it is something that she didn't approve of or authorised Ms Watt to do.

Mrs Vardy doesn't actually know what happened.

All she knows is what she did. And she knows it wasn't her.

Thank you. My Lady, with the court's permission, I'll call Mrs Vardy.

Court room 13 was packed full of journalists.

We knew this was going to be dramatic.

Rooney was represented by David Sherborne,

one of the most highly paid

and formidable lawyers in the country.

He has three days to dismantle Vardy's story

and to destroy her credibility.

Mrs Vardy.

You would agree that

to secretly pass on somebody else's information that didn't want it

to be shared with the outside world is wrong?

Yes, my Lady.

Would you say that you respect other people's privacy?

Yes, I do.

Well, let's test that. We're back in 2004.

And you gave The News of the World this interview

about having had sex with Peter Andre.

"Peter's shaved, slobbery, lasts five minutes

"and then falls asleep. Peter was tiny, she sighs.

"Smallest trouser equipment I've ever seen.

"When he pulled down his pants, I couldn't believe it.

"It was like a miniature chipolata."

Your words, Mrs Vardy?

Yes, my Lady. Can I give you a bit of history on that one?

Well, I would rather you answer my question.

Do you think it was respectful of Mr Andre,

to have told all this to Sun readers?

It is horrible.

And would I ever do something like that again?

Not in a million years. It is not nice.

I was very young and I've apologised for this.

It's...shameful reading that and it's one of my biggest regrets.

What the defence is trying to do here

is paint and allege a picture of Vardy having

a long history of telling people's personal information

to national journalists.

One of the strange features of this trial

was that it centred on someone who never actually testified.

That's Rebekah Vardy's former PR agent and friend, Caroline Watt.

Both Rooney and Vardy agreed that Watt could have been leaking stories to The Sun.

The question was, did Vardy know she was doing it?

Vardy claimed that she didn't.

The challenge for her was how to explain away

the evidence to the contrary.

I make this statement in support of my claim

for libel against Coleen Rooney.

I first met Caroline Watt in 2016,

when I decided to take on professional media help.

I liked her and I thought she was funny,

our children were very similar ages and we bonded over that.

I gave Caroline sole access

to my Instagram account when I was appearing on I'm a Celebrity.

Did you tell Mrs Rooney that Ms Watt had access,

through your account, to her private Instagram account?

No, and I didn't tell lots of other followers the same.

And do you feel strongly that as your agent she should be able

to read everyone's private

information without their knowledge through the use of your account?

No, but to the best of my knowledge I didn't know that's what was happening.

And if she was, that would be wrong? Correct.

And if you knew she was doing that,

that would make you responsible as well, wouldn't it?

Yes, but I didn't know that that's what was happening.

So you say, Mrs Vardy, so you say.

Can I now ask you to turn to the first bundle, D.

This is an exchange between you and Caroline Watt, is that right?

Yes.

We see you start this exchange at 8.49am.

What does "FFS" stand for?

Um...

It's fine.

"For Fuck's Sake."

I just wanted to be clear before I read it as that.

If you leak someone's information,

now that's not a nice thing to do, is it,

we can agree on that, can't we?

Yes, but I didn't leak anything.

I genuinely can't remember who we

were discussing in this conversation.

And, when I say "leak"...

..I have very strong beliefs on promoting positive body imaging

and it actually wasn't meant to read like that at all.

What I meant was,

can we not do a positive body campaign.

Which I then went on the following year

and did a positive body campaign.

WhatsApp is used in English. That is the language,

and you do use the word "leak," don't you?

I did use the word "leak," but that's not what I meant.

I wanted to do a story promoting positive body imaging.

And if you are doing a story, then how is that a leak?

Because...that's not what I meant to say.

It wasn't meant to be a leak.

Oh, I see.

You don't know what the word "leak" means then?

Well, there are two meanings to it,

but that's not what I meant when I said the word "leak."

Can we turn then to the next example?

You message Ms Watt out of the blue.

"OMG, have you seen how badly Mrs F is behaving."

Mrs F is a well-known celebrity, right? That's correct, yes.

We have the names in the confidential schedule

so I am going to be very careful not to identify them.

Mr H is the estranged husband.

And Mr G is a well-known footballer.

You instructed Caroline to leak

a story about Mrs F cheating on her husband by having sex with

a well-known footballer behind his back.

Isn't that what you say there?

That's the way it reads,

but I was actually just joking about that one.

You were just joking, were you? Yes, I was.

But Ms Watt doesn't think you're joking, does she?

Because she says, "I tried before but The Sun already knew about it

"and couldn't prove it as usual."

Now, you don't respond to that by saying,

"Oh, I'm only joking, Caroline.

"I didn't really mean for you to leak it",

what you say is "Ugh,"

you're annoyed that you can't leak it, aren't you?

No, I'm disgusted.

Going back to the first comment with the behaviour.

It's...it's more like a yuck not an ugh.

Really?

You want this court to believe that?

Mrs Watt and myself have been friends for

a very long time.

Our WhatsApps were sometimes outrageous,

sometimes totally inappropriate but these are

a lot of conversations that are between friends,

gossiping and poking fun about people,

and yes, they don't read very well.

But, there's always explanations for them.

Rebekah Vardy didn't grow up part of the media elite.

She actually grew up on council estates and became homeless at 15.

PHONE RINGS

But, after marrying one of the biggest footballers in

the country, she began to establish a public profile of her own.

She appeared on TV, I'm A Celebrity and Loose Women,

and she was constantly featured in the press.

But now, that very same media that had helped her rise

to fame sat in judgement on her, in literally the seats

a jury would normally sit in.

Live Tweeting to the public as Rooney's team continued their attack.

The next accusation was of underhand methods in

the way that Vardy tried to boost her press profile.

Mrs Robertson, please feel free to sit. Thank you.

Harpreet Robinson claimed

Vardy sat in seats that weren't allocated to her at the Euros 2016.

Robertson suspected Vardy sat there

so she could be photographed next to Rooney by the press.

Can we talk about the Euros 2016 game?

You said an issue arose as

to whether Rebekah Vardy was in the right seats? Yes.

Can you just explain the process briefly as

to how you decide who sits where in a game?

Well, prior to the match, I would do a recce of the stadium

and then I would work out which seats to allocate to various groups.

I was trying to avoid the families of

the footballers sitting together.

Because we'd seen on previous tournaments that this had become a distraction.

I wanted the football to be the focus of the tournament.

In relation to Mrs Vardy's seating, what issue arose?

Her guests were sitting in my seats.

It meant that I didn't have a seat or the security guards that I was with.

We had to find somewhere else.

In terms of what happened when you spoke

to Mrs Vardy's party, can you just give

a little explanation as to what was said to you?

I mean, this is the bit that...

..it was the worst sort of moment I've had working on

a match up until that point.

She was told to fuck off.

I absolutely didn't tell her that at all.

Can we turn to the next page?

Your Euro Diary, it's your column in The Sun.

Ms Caroline Watt has arranged for you to have

a column in The Sun, hasn't she? That's correct, yes.

You've done well. I suppose you could call it that.

This is you getting a chance to promote yourself in The Sun?

No, this is an opportunity for me to be able

to earn my own money.

I never wanted to rely on my husband.

I wanted to earn my own money

and there were opportunities that arose.

Now, this is the article you wrote after the Wales game.

"I was sitting just behind Coleen Rooney watching

"the game and we'd a chat before it started."

That's gratuitous, isn't it?

No, I think it's stating the obvious.

I mean, the pictures speak for themselves.

Let me help you, Mrs Vardy.

The reason you wanted to put this in is

because it boosts your public profile, doesn't it?

That's just ridiculous.

What you don't say is you were sitting behind Mrs Rooney

because you deliberately went and sat there,

even though they weren't your seats.

That's nonsense. Absolute nonsense.

Well, someone is not telling the truth. Either you or Mrs Robertson.

I think she's...

..has either got confused or it's what she's been told to say.

What she's been told to say?

Who has she been told to say this by?

I don't know. I'm just speculating, my Lady.

What were you speculating?

Perhaps you can tell us.

That maybe she got her wires crossed

or that she...got the wrong end of the stick.

So, you're quite prepared, in this court, to throw around

an accusation that Mrs Robertson has not been telling the truth.

Well, I don't believe her statement.

Let's come on to some other examples of you providing other people's

information they don't want published.

Danny Drinkwater was another professional footballer, yes?

Yes.

On the 8th April 2019, you message Caroline Watt.

Is this another joke?

Another conversation between you

and Ms Watt which is not real English?

No, it's absolutely not a joke.

It is not a joke

because you say you want money in return for this story, don't you?

It was a fleeting thought

and one I didn't consider any more than when I wrote it.

What on earth does that mean, that answer?

Can you just explain that? "It was a fleeting thought."

I meant in the context that it was something terrible that had originated.

That I had seen on social media.

I'm...deeply affected by drink driving.

My ex-husband killed two people during our marriage

and it was something that I felt was outrageous,

and at the time I didn't care whether

the information came out or not.

It was something that rightly should,

someone should have to deal with and if they've got expensive lawyers

the chances are they won't have to deal with it.

They were going to get away with it.

You meant it when you said, "I want paying for this."

No, it wasn't a serious comment.

It was not a serious comment?

Well, we will see how seriously Ms Watt takes it in a minute.

Look what Caroline Watt says.

You say "He's in big trouble." Now, you don't come back and say,

"What on earth are you doing sending it to Andy Halls, a Sun journalist?"

No, I didn't and for that, I can only apologise.

The messages are not good,

but it was something that really affected me in the instance.

Very, very badly in the past.

Caroline Watt says to you...

To which you respond...

So, what are you angry about when you say,

"Fuck, someone already tipped it."

I'm not angry at all.

Again, it's just the way we spoke to each other.

You're fuming because someone else beat you to it.

That's not true at all, I was annoyed that I didn't give it to Caroline earlier.

Why?

I don't know.

Mrs Vardy, I am going to ask you again.

Why are you fuming that you didn't give it to Caroline earlier?

I don't know.

Mrs Vardy, I'm going to ask you to take the supplemental bundle.

Can you turn, please, to page 273.

This is your witness statement, isn't it?

Yes. Can I just read the statement of truth there.

"I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true."

And you understood, didn't you,

how important it was to get this document right?

And you know the consequences of getting it wrong.

Yes.

I have sometimes been caught up in the heat of the moment

during conversations with Caroline where I have talked about "leaks" and payment.

This was the kind of jokey chat that Caroline

and I would have from time to time.

She would be speaking to journalists

and they would give her gossip and try and get stories.

These kinds of conversations were part of

the strange celebrity gossip world I have come to inhabit.

But, these conversations were never serious

and Caroline would have understood that.

Mrs Vardy...

..do you still stand by that evidence?

That in all those conversations that we've seen,

you were never being serious

and Caroline understood that you were never being serious?

Yes, or no, please, Mrs Vardy. Yes.

Apart from the Danny Drinkwater one.

Oh, I see, so there is an exception, is there?

Why on earth then did you not say in the statement,

I put it to you that when you say in that written statement,

"these conversations were never,"

and I emphasise the word "never, serious",

that's completely untrue, isn't it? No, that's not.

This shows, Mrs Vardy, that you are prepared to lie under oath, aren't you?

No, I'm really not, no.

Leaked text messages, sold stories.

The High Court case between Rebekah Vardy

and Coleen Rooney has got everybody talking.

So far, Vardy had been accused of leaking various stories,

but none were yet about Rooney herself,

and ultimately, those were the ones that mattered.

If Rooney couldn't prove that Vardy knew about those leaks,

Vardy would win her claim for libel.

Vardy's defence was that her agent

Caroline Watt had leaked those posts. Not her.

Rooney's team didn't believe Vardy.

But, could they prove she wasn't telling the truth.

In 2019, I was aware that information from my

private Instagram account was being leaked to The Sun.

It was messing with my head that someone who I trusted was doing this

to me. Becky's account was the one that stood out at that time.

We got on fine, but over time,

I got the feeling that she was really just fishing for information.

I decided to remove Becky as a follower

to see whether that put a stop to the leaks.

Mrs Rooney blocks you.

Then, on the 6th February,

Caroline messages you. "Babe, has Coleen unfollowed you?"

That's correct.

Ms Watt must have been looking through your account at

Mrs Rooney's account to be able to see that she had unfollowed you.

I can't comment on that.

I don't know how she managed to find out that.

You don't know? Well, OK, let's look a bit further down.

You say...

So this is Caroline Watt telling you that she's specifically looking on

the account to find out what's going on in Mrs Rooney's life.

Do you see? Yes.

Yes. It's quite clear Ms Watt was monitoring Mrs Rooney's private

Instagram account, through the use of your account, isn't that right?

No. It says she looked on there at the weekend.

That doesn't say that she's monitoring it or that she's

consistently checking it or consistently looking at it.

But, she is telling you she has been doing it?

No, she says she's looked on there at the weekend.

That doesn't say that she's monitoring it or that she's

consistently checking it or looking at it.

"OMG" you say.

"What a cunt.

"I'm going to message her." And then Caroline says...

You're trying to work out what you should do about

the fact that Mrs Rooney has unfollowed you.

You go on. "Not having her bad mouth me to anyone.

"If she's doing that, my god, she will be sorry."

And you say, "I've messaged her.

"I swear she better not cunt me off."

I received a WhatsApp from Becky which said,

"I saw you had unfollowed me, just wanted

"to ask if I offended you in any way?

"Literally only noticed the other day."

This made me really suspicious, but I wanted

to be 100% certain who was responsible for the leaks.

So, I accepted her as a follower again.

But on Twitter, I uploaded

a public message that information was being leaked by someone.

This post was a warning shot.

And I was hopeful it might stop the leaks.

Can we turn to her public warning post about the leaks?

"It's happened several times now over

"the past couple of years," she says.

"It's sad to think someone,

"who I have accepted to follow me is betraying

"for either money or to keep a relationship with the press."

Correct, wasn't she?

I don't know.

If you look at page 53,

this is you speaking to Caroline Watt about the post.

She obviously finds it very funny, doesn't she?

I don't know whether they are laughing or crying.

OK.

It looks to me like laughing to me. Crying with laughter.

Then you say, "I know,"

and then, these words from Caroline.

"It was me." She's admitting there what you knew already.

That seems to be what she's saying, but...

..I'm just looking at the times. It's 18:47.

That's when I'm bathing my children. There's no response from me.

Well, why didn't you after the bath, if that's what you're doing,

why didn't you message her then and say,

"What are you talking about? You didn't do it."

Why didn't you come back and say, "I've just read what you've written.

"I can't believe it. That's nonsense".

You don't need to respond, do you, Mrs Vardy, because

you know exactly what she's talking about.

Because if I may, my Lady,

I have seen the conversation that follows,

and, without wanting to make fun of anyone it was actually Dancing on Ice,

and Gemma Collins face-planting on the ice was the next message.

That's what I had on in the background when I was bathing the children.

At times, you had to remind yourself that Vardy was

the one who chose to bring this to trial,

not the other way around. Did she ever wish she hadn't?

Who knows?

But so far she had doggedly stuck to her story.

And Rooney's team were hampered by a lack of direct evidence.

Although they had some of her WhatsApps, many of them had gone missing.

What happened to all the messages between you

and Caroline Watt on your phone between

the 15th of October 2019 and July 2020?

I can't confirm or deny

but I think I may have changed phones around that time.

August, as you know, was a busy month, wasn't it?

There was a hearing in this court when one of

the judges ordered that not only should you disclose

and have searched your devices,

but that Ms Watt should also. You knew that, didn't you?

Yes. And when, a few days later, she loses her phone in

the North Sea...that would be pretty important, wouldn't it?

Yes, I think so.

She would have rung you up straight away,

wouldn't she, to say, "Oh, my God, I've lost my phone,

"I have dropped it in the sea."

Yes, she told me on the phone.

So why is it that your solicitors do not tell us about that

for four months?

I don't know. You see, the shame is, isn't it, Mrs Vardy,

that Mr Boyle's WhatsApp messages with Ms Watt,

just as the ones with Mr Hall, are lying at the bottom of

the sea, in Davy Jones' locker, aren't they?

Who is Davy Jones? LAUGHTER

It just means at the bottom of the sea.

After yet another leak,

I wanted to catch the account responsible,

so I came up with a plan.

Instagram has a function by which you could post a story,

and limit which of your followers was able

to view that story.

I would invent and fabricate a story,

and limit the accessibility in such a way

so that it was only Becky's account that could view it.

I would then wait and see whether my fabricated story,

which had only been seen by Becky's account, appeared in The Sun.

And that, of course, is exactly what happens.

Her fake stories begin to appear in The Sun.

Let's look at page 752.

This is one of them, the flooded basement post.

We can see on

the bottom left-hand corner it's seen by only you, isn't it?

On the face of it, that's what it says.

She's limited her followers to just one account.

No-one else would have seen it.

The post is a bottle of wine and it says,

"Needed after today, flood in the basement of our new house

"when it all seemed to be going so well."

Now, her new house is a topic, obviously, of conversation.

The fact that she was building a house, yes?

Yes. So, the fact that there had been a flood in the basement of

the house would have been very newsworthy.

I don't know why it would have been newsworthy, but...

Well, The Sun obviously thought it was a newsworthy story

because as we see on page 84, they publish

an article about it, don't they?

"Coleen Rooney has weathered plenty

"of storms during her 11-year marriage,

"but the latest one wasn't to do with husband Wayne."

And the source obviously thought it was

a newsworthy story too, because they passed it to them,

even though it was a false story.

You didn't know it was a false story though did you when you saw it?

I can't recall seeing this one.

Mrs Vardy...

..I'm going to have to suggest to you that you seem

to be trying to distance yourself

from having seen this flooded basement post, are you?

No. And The Sun article is based on information that you

and Ms Watt passed through, that only you or Ms Watt,

had seen in Mrs Rooney's private Instagram account.

That's correct, isn't it? That's not correct, no.

I'm going to ask you the question again.

Did you or did you not see this screenshot, Mrs Vardy?

No. I don't recall seeing this one.

Um...er...

..this is the answer your solicitors gave us on instructions.

Was "Mrs Vardy recalls seeing the Flooded Basement Post".

But now, you just said you don't recall it?

N...er...

No, that's right.

A lot of things were...

There was a lot of abuse at that time.

Do you want to take a break, Mrs Vardy?

Let's take a five minute break.

I saw Coleen's post which said I had leaked to The Sun,

soon after it was published on the 9th of October 2019.

It came as a great shock to me.

I could not believe that Coleen had not called me

before posting this accusation to the world.

My concerns were that I would not faint,

have a panic attack or stop breathing.

I started to get really hot

and suffered from strange palpitations.

Loads of messages started coming

through on my mobile phone calling me names.

"Fucking rat", "fucking bitch," "who sells their friends out?"

I was heavily pregnant

and it felt like the whole world was caving in.

Can I take you to page 779? 779.

Mrs Rooney put up the post that is the subject of this action.

Caroline Watt tells you.

Ms Watt's coming up with excuses.

No, that's true. My Instagram did follow people,

and still does to this day, that I don't follow.

She says, "Just say you have allowed a company to access it

"for sponsored posts." Caroline Watt knows that's not true, doesn't she?

I think she's trying to be protective

and come up with something.

My Lady, you'll have to excuse me, that is such a blur that day.

She's feeding you lines, isn't she, Mrs Vardy,

to try and suggest to Mrs Rooney that you are not

responsible, is that correct or not? No.

And then Caroline writes out for you what you should say

to Coleen Rooney.

"Over the years various people have had access to my Insta,

"just this week I found I was following people I didn't know

"and have never followed myself. I liked you a lot, Coleen,

"I'm so upset that you have chosen to do this,

"especially when I'm heavily pregnant."

This is Caroline writing to you what you should say.

That's correct, because I couldn't think straight.

If you turn to page 87.

This is an exclusive interview you gave the next day.

The heading is

"Arguing with Coleen Rooney would be as pointless as arguing with a pigeon."

We read "Vardy says, you can tell it that you are right and it is wrong,

"but it's still going to shit in your hair."

That's what you said to her, isn't it?

It seemed Coleen had weaponised her fanbase against me,

and I was desperately trying

to do something to defuse the situation.

I am going to conclude.

Mrs Vardy, we've seen you and Ms Watt were consistently discussing,

and passing on information to The Sun about

a number of people who you knew, yes?

No.

Mr Drinkwater.

The married footballer.

Mr H. We have seen you asking Ms Watt to leak

the story of Mrs F shagging.

Would you not agree, Mrs Vardy,

that if it looks like a leak and it sounds like a leak

and you even use the word "leak,"

that it is more likely than not to be a leak?

No. And that's what you were, wasn't it, a leak? No.

So, when Mrs Rooney wrote on

the 9th October that she was correct in suspecting you

and of your account of having consistently been leaking private information

to The Sun she was right, wasn't she?

No, she was wrong.

And that's why Ms Watt couldn't face coming to court in

the end, could she?

Actually, she's been driven

to suicidal thoughts by these proceedings

and the antics of the defendant.

So, you blame her instead

and say that she may well have done it after all these years

of faithful service and doing only what you both knew

and approved of her doing, isn't that correct?

No.

You see, Mrs Vardy, I have to put it to you...

..that it is not her that has betrayed you,

as you suggest.

It is you that has betrayed her by throwing her under the bus.

Is that a joke?

Let's see what the court says, Mrs Vardy.

I have no further questions. Thank you.

It was estimated Vardy's legal bills

to this point were approaching one million pounds.

Was it worth it?

If she thought it would restore some sort

of spotless reputation, possibly not.

But maybe spotless reputations aren't what count these days.

If notoriety is actually the secret to success,

who knows, perhaps it will all turn out to be money well spent.

And now she'd escaped the witness box,

it would be her opportunity to turn the heat on Rooney.

Anyone who thought this case was over was in for a shock.

She told me she wanted to make me feel paranoid

the way she had felt paranoid.

We don't have your WhatsApp messages, do we?

I've got no reason to...

You see when this happens to Mrs Vardy, its a plot.

I'm sat here under oath.

I 100% spoke to Mr Vardy.

You see Mrs Rooney I'm suggesting that you're wrong about that.

You replied by telling a lie. Yes.

You don't actually have any evidence, do you?

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