The Wagatha Christie Saga Comes to a Close

In October 2019, Coleen Rooney, wife of the retired British soccer star Wayne, published a few words on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook that set off nearly three years of tabloid catnip and legal spectacle:

“It’s ……….Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

She had, by her description, set a sort of trap for Vardy, who is married to the Premier League–winning striker Jamie, an athlete Wayne has played with on their national team. Rooney said she noticed stories that could only be derived from her private Instagram account published in The Sun. Suspecting that Vardy had leaked those tidbits, she said she blocked all of the accounts following her except for Vardy’s and waited to see whether some false stories she began posting would still make it to the tabloid⁠—and they did.

Vardy sued Rooney for defamation over the claim the following year, and the British press, in its relentless coverage of the saga, gave the matter an undeniably sticky tagline: “Wagatha Christie.” (WAGs being the preferred and enduring tabloid acronym for the wives and girlfriends of Premier League players.) But Rooney can now officially stand by her detective work because on Friday, a London court ruled against Vardy by dismissing the libel suit.

“I have found that Ms. Vardy was party to the disclosure to The Sun of the Marriage, Birthday, Halloween, Pyjamas, Car Crash, Gender Selection, Babysitting, and Flooded Basement Posts,“ Justice Karen Steyn wrote in her verdict.

Such was the substance of a case that, as The New York Times noted on Friday, prompted Sky News to put the words “Wagatha Christie” in tickers alongside “War in Ukraine.” The table of contents for Steyn’s verdict includes sections on: “Access to the Private Instagram Account”; “Maldives stuff”; “The Soho House Post”; and “Ms Rooney’s decision to remove Ms. Vardy as a follower.” And the Times pointed out that the nine-day trial became a fashion event as well, with Vardy in Alessandra Rich and Alexander McQueen and Rooney in Chanel, Gucci, and a medical boot. 

The trial drew a similar level of attention prompted by Johnny Depp’s recent defamation suit against Amber Heard, despite having little of the same seriousness. “Some members of the public have responded to the Reveal Post by subjecting Ms. Vardy to vile abuse, including messages wishing her, her family, and even her (then-unborn) baby, ill in the most awful terms,” Steyn wrote in a preliminary remark in her verdict. “Nothing of which Ms. Vardy has been accused, nor any of the findings in this judgment, provide any justification or excuse for subjecting her or her family, or any other person involved in this case, to such vitriol.”

Wayne recently arrived in the U.S. to continue his second act as a coach. Jamie is preparing for his 10th season at Leicester City, where his reputation for longevity has begun to rival his goal-scoring accolades. Each of them attended the trial and may continue to be overshadowed by the circumstances of their feuding families. 

“The judge accepted that publication of Coleen’s Post was not in the ‘public interest’ and she also rejected her claim that I was the ‘Secret Wag,’” Vardy said in a statement after the verdict. “But as for the rest of her judgment, she got it wrong and this is something I cannot accept.”