Coleen Rooney says she was ‘really shocked’ by attention that Rebekah Vardy post received

Rooney’s viral 2019 post spawned the monicker ‘Wagatha Christie’ and a high-profile libel trial

Coleen Rooney has said she was “really shocked” by the scale of the reaction to her 2019 post about Rebekah Vardy, which led to a high-profile libel trial.

In October 2019, Rooney – who is married to former footballer Wayne Rooney – accused Rebekah Vardy, the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, of leaking stories to The Sun newspaper using information taken from her private Instagram account.

Discussing the public reaction to the viral post on BBC One’s The One Show on Monday (16 October), Rooney said: “I knew there’d be attention but not the level it got. I was really shocked at how big it got.”

Speaking on whether she still stands by the post, she added: “They were my words and I stick by them today and that was something that I continued with.

“It was tough, there was times where I just wanted it to go away but that’s what I had to do, I had to just battle on.”

“It was so stressful,” she said.

“I feel like a massive cloud’s been lifted now and even though I was there physically looking after the children, mentally I just wasn’t so now I just feel so grateful to be present again and to be there with the kids, both physically and mentally.”

Coleen Rooney on ‘The One Show’ (BBC One)

Rooney appeared on the BBC show to discuss the new three-part docuseries Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story premiering on Disney+ on Wednesday, which offers Rooney’s perspective on the events surrounding the case.

The trial had been dubbed “Wagatha Christie” in reference to the popular mystery writer and the term Wag meaning “wives and girlfriends” of high-profile footballers.

In the 2019 post, Rooney wrote: “Over the past five months I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into The Sun newspaper. And you know what, they did!”

She added: “It’s been tough keeping it to myself and not making any comment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked, however I had to.

“Now I know for certain which account/individual it’s come from.

“I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them.

“It’s ...... Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

Vardy strongly disputed the claims and sued Rooney for libel but lost the High Court battle in 2022 after the judge found Rooney’s claims to be “substantially true”.

Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, a three-part series, will premiere on Wednesday 18th October on Disney Plus UK.

Additional reporting by PA