Wiktor Szymanowicz
One of the most ridiculous and engrossing trials in modern legal memory finally came to a conclusion on Friday. After one soccer player’s wife accused another of leaking stories about her to the tabloid press in 2019, we couldn’t have foreseen the rollercoaster of secret messages, suspiciously lost evidence, and downright hilarity which was to follow. Such was the drama that—before the case even had a verdict—Channel 4 announced it would turn the saga into a TV docudrama.
On Friday, a judge ruled against Rebekah Vardy, wife of Leicester City player Jamie, in her libel case against Coleen Rooney. Vardy had tried to claim she’d been defamed by Rooney—whose husband Wayne coaches MLS team D.C. United—when Rooney accused Vardy of selling stories to The Sun newspaper.
Rooney first made the allegation against Vardy in spectacular fashion three years ago—earning comparisons to Agatha Christie—when she publicly revealed the details of an ingenious sting operation designed to catch the person who was selling stories about her. On Oct. 9, 2019, Rooney gathered an entire nation into the proverbial drawing room to unmask the culprit. “I blocked everyone from viewing my Instagram stories except ONE account,” Rooney wrote in a post on her social media channels. “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! … I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s… Rebekah Vardy’s account.”