The last time I wrote about the complete disaster that the Wagatha Christie lawsuit has turned into for Rebekah Vardy, a spirited defense from the lady herself arrived in my Instagram inbox faster than I could ask: Does your agent REALLY have her phone on the bottom? from the north Accidentally drop sea?
Becky, a woman I’ve always liked and respected for her spirited working-class spirit, was adamant about taking Coleen Rooney to court for claiming that leaking stories from her private Instagram account to The Sun newspaper was the right thing to do.
Sure, some of the expletives-laden and downright nasty text messages didn’t make her look great, she admitted, but she was bullied, manipulated, and incredibly trolled while heavily pregnant over something she claims she didn’t do. — and the media attention was unfairly piled against her.
Sadly, today’s damning verdict proves she was wrong enough to pursue a legal defense of her damaged reputation.
Wagatha Christie will go down as the greatest self-inflicted celebrity defeat in history.
DAN WOOTTON: The last time I wrote about the complete disaster that the Wagatha Christie lawsuit has become for Rebekah Vardy, a spirited defense of the lady herself hit my Instagram inbox faster than I could ask: Did your agent REALLY dropped her phone on the bottom of the North Sea by accident?
Given what emerged during the nine-day farcical trial, it’s sometimes hard to understand that it was the Vardys who insisted the whole charade go to court, while the Rooney’s tried countless times to reach a settlement.
I read the 75-page verdict in its entirety and felt increasingly horrified as Judge Steyn dismantled Rebekah’s evidence honestly and coolly, with an understated admission that the entire trial was a chronic waste of £3 million of time and money for everyone involved.
She describes parts of her evidence as “not credible” and admits that Rebekah was “sincerely offended” by Coleen’s accusation, before scathingly concluding: “That’s not because she was not involved in the release of information from the private Instagram account: I found she was.
On the contrary, her outrage at the accusation stems, in my view, from a combination of factors.
“Mrs. Vardy’s part in releasing information to The Sun, it seems to me, was thoughtless rather than part of a deliberate and coordinated business practice.”
In what could be an excerpt from a psychological evaluation rather than a court ruling, she adds: “There has been a degree of self-deception on her part as to the extent to which she was involved, as well as a degree of justified resentment at the exaggerated way her role has sometimes been presented during the trial.’
Becky, a woman I’ve always liked and respected for her spirited working-class spirit, was adamant to sue Coleen Rooney (pictured) for claiming stories from her private Instagram account to The Sun were the right thing to do.
That last point is certainly correct.
The media portrayal of Coleen as Cinderella and Rebekah as the ugly stepsister is as simplistic as it is nasty.
As a showbiz columnist with The Sun for many years, I saw firsthand how the Rooney’s would manipulate the media themselves with briefings and covert deals on stories, mostly to try and save Wayne from blushing even more.
It was especially outrageous that Rooney’s legal team tried to take me to court, along with a number of other former and current Sun journalists, and force us to release details of private communications with sources.
That would have had a chilling impact on press freedom in the UK, which is already under attack.
When it comes to social media, Coleen has been more than a little naive to believe that a bunch of fame-hungry WAGs would ever keep her messages to so-called “close friends” a secret.
To this day, Rebekah and her agent Caroline Watt are convinced that there were other famous people with access to the information who were selling stories of a much more damaging nature about the Rooneys.
When it comes to social media, Coleen (pictured with husband Wayne) has been more than a little naive to believe that a bunch of fame-hungry WAGs would ever keep her messages to so-called “close friends” a secret.
Judge Steyn admitted in her verdict: ‘The information released was not very confidential and can rightly be described as trivial, but it does not have to be confidential or important to face the sting of libel.
“It was information from private messages that Mrs. Rooney didn’t want to make public.”
I’d add that in the future, if Coleen really wants her trials and tribulations to be kept secret, it’s best not to post every detail of her life to a group of 300 people on Instagram, some of whom more than likely will. share the posts with others.
That said, those heady days of 2019 when Coleen first unveiled her Wagatha Christie handicrafts feel like much simpler and happier times.
Dan Wootton: Wagatha Christie proves to me that celebrities with more money than sense should be kept away from the libel courts
Covid-19 was still in a lab in Wuhan, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was still known as that comedian who became president, and millions of Britons were not forced to think about how to survive thanks to an unprecedented crisis in the cost of living.
As Coleen said today, ‘It was not a case I ever sought or wanted. I would never have believed that in times of hardship it should have gone to court for so many people at such a high cost, when the money could have been much better spent helping others.
“Both before and after my social media posts in October 2019, I did everything I could to avoid such a protracted and public lawsuit. All my attempts to do so were beaten back by Mrs. (Rebekah) Vardy.’
I repeat, that was a mistake by the Vardys that they will no doubt regret in time.
Instead of considering an appeal, Rebekah should accept the verdict (which was actually quite nice for her given the circumstances), move on and rebuild her career.
But what gets interesting now is to see the Be Kind brigade in action attempt to destroy Rebekah, with villainous trolls and declarations that her career is over and her reputation will be destroyed forever.
Uh, no it’s not!
She’s a multimillionaire with an insanely successful footballer husband who loves her dearly and a lovely family who happened to leak a few stories to a newspaper, just like pretty much every celebrity has ever done.
What Wagatha Christie proves to me is that celebrities with more money than sense should be kept away from the courts at all costs.