the times | Tuesday May 17 2022 2GM 5
News
Coleen Rooney condemned her rival
WAG Rebekah Vardy yesterday as a
lying, fame-hungry stalker who made
“evil” comments about her while leak-
ing stories to the media.
More than half of the players’ wives
and girlfriends that Vardy invited to a
private dinner during the Russia World
Cup in 2018 complained that she set
them up for a paparazzi photograph,
the High Court was told.
Rooney, the wife of Wayne, the
former England captain, announced in
October 2019 that a “sting” operation
on her private Instagram account re-
vealed that leaks had come from
“.. .Rebekah Vardy’s account”. Rooney,
36, said she did not tell anyone, not even
her husband, about her detective work
because “I wanted to do this myself”.
Vardy, 40, wife of Jamie, the Leicester
City striker, denies leaking and is suing
Rooney for libel, claiming that she
feared she would miscarry her baby and
that she received death threats and vile
abuse on social media.
Vardy complained to her agent,
Caroline Watt, after being blocked from
Rooney’s Instagram account, that her
rival WAG was “such a dick”, a “c***
[that] needs to get over herself” a
“stupid cow [who] deserves everything
she gets” and “a nasty bitch”, the court
was told
Rooney, who left court clutching a
silver necklace with a Christian cross
pendant, said: “I have never done any-
thing... for them to monitor me or stalk
me. The messages that went on bet-
ween them were just evil and uncalled
for, speaking about someone they don’t
know. I’m totally the opposite of what
they described. I’m not a bad person,
the words they used. It’s not true. I have
never done anything to them for them
to monitor me or stalk me.”
Rooney said she did not believe Var-
dy’s denial that she leaked the posts.
“She says she has zero interest in what’s
going on in my life, which I believe is
totally untrue,” Rooney said. “She talks
about me a lot... so that was a lie. I
didn’t trust her, I didn’t believe her. I did
not believe a word that was coming out
of her mouth.”
Rooney told the court that she posted
five or six fake posts a day — about 50
in total — of which only two were
allegedly leaked by Vardy to become
subjects of stories in The Sun. She added
that Vardy was “fame hungry” during
the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Wayne Rooney bent his head back-
wards and forwards as if he had a stiff
neck as his wife discussed his “misbe-
haviours” that threatened their mar-
riage. Later he cracked his knuckles and
played with his wedding ring while his
wife concluded her evidence.
Vardy left the court after hearing a
Football Association official claim that
more than half of the WAGs she invited
to a dinner in St Petersburg complained
about her. Vardy informed her agent
about her plans to leave a hotel with
eight other WAGS so that a photo-
grapher could be present, but she de-
nies revealing which restaurant they
would visit. Harpreet Robertson, the
FA’s liaison officer for the players’ fami-
lies, recalled being told by members ofthe England touring party that Vardy
was “contractually obliged to get a cer-
tain or minimum number of photo-
graphs from a celebrity/public relations
perspective during the tournament”.
Robertson told the court that two
guests of Vardy being “rude and abu-sive” to her at a Euro 2016 match was
the “worst moment” she had experi-
enced at a game.
Robertson also claimed that Vardy
deliberately sat behind Rooney instead
of the seat allocated to her by the FA at
England’s match against Wales in the2016 European Championships. “It
appeared that she wanted to be sat in
the seats that were right in the eye line
of anyone looking at, or photographing,
Coleen,” Robertson said.
The trial continues.
Hilary Rose, TimesAmber Heard admitted she has not
fully donated her $7 million divorce set-
tlement to charity as promised — and
blamed Johnny Depp for embroiling
her in expensive legal action as the
former couple’s $50 million defamation
trial resumed in Fairfax, Virginia.
She said their marriage was violent,
abusive and marred by Depp’s
addictions. Depp is suing his ex-wife
over a column in The Washington Post
in 2018 in which she described herself
Rooney condemns Vardy’s ‘lies’
David Brown
Quentin
Letts
The penalty
shoot-out
in Court 13
O
utside the slightly
mouldy Court 13 of the
Royal Courts of Justice,
a single sheet of paper
advertised the fixture:
“Mrs Justice Steyn; Vardy v.
Rooney.” Dry, dusty fact. To the
lawyers it was just another lucrative
bout, a weighing of evidence which
will eventually conclude who is
right and who is ruined. Libel
trials can be as brutal as a penalty
shoot-out.
“All rise.” Enter Judge Steyn, two
red tabs at her collar, a
no-nonsense hairdo and ski-jump
nose. Coleen Rooney, defendant,
sat in the witness box. Did Wayne
Rooney’s wife libel her fellow WAG,
Rebekah Vardy, when accusing her
of leaking gossip? Or was the
allegation a shot on target? Steyn
will decide.
Vardy sat a short distance
below, mostly avoiding any glance
at her opponent. In jolting
lemon-meringue suit and pink nail
varnish, white shoes and a flawless,
caramel complexion she was
unmissable: a WAG fashion
explosion in a pond of drabness.
Rooney herself was more darkly
attired, with surgical boot and a
whiff of Mersey salt.
Under examination from Hugh
Tomlinson QC, Rooney proved a
tidy defender. “You’ve been in the
business a long time,” murmured
Tomlinson. Business? Is that what
marriage to a top footballer is
called? “I’ve took the
opportunities,” agreed Coleen, chin
held high. She stared straight at
Tomlinson. When he quibbled
about the wiping of some telephonerecords, she replied: “We were not
in legal procedures at that time.”
She was obliged to explain the
workings of Instagram to
Tomlinson, 68. He smiled foggily.
Not one of life’s inveterate
Tweeters, perhaps. He burbled his
way through questions, slowly
removing and then re-applying his
spectacles as he grappled with
possible inconsistencies in the
evidence. There was much of thelate Robert Morley to this act: the
wetness round the chops, the jowly
befuddlement, his spine slow to
straighten.
David Sherborne, Rooney’s
lawyer, was a dandier proposition,
nasal voice putting witnesses at
ease. Two wisps of hair, so dark
they could have been dipped in
dyer’s indigo, protruded at his left
temple from under his formal wig.
He had a plaster on one of hisfingers. He’s so sharp, he may have
cut it while stroking his chin.
Sherborne flashed a grin at Judge
Steyn — “your ladyship” — and
dispensed charm, treacle dribbled
on porridge.
While Coleen was in the witness
box, two off-the-ball players caught
the gaze: her husband, Wayne,
catatonic, and her shimmering
arch-enemy, the Lemon Queen
Vardy. What a study. The little
emotion she displayed was betrayed
only by a flashing of two mahogany
eyes and a light pumping of
trombonist lips. The only time she
lifted her long lashes towards the
witness box was when Coleen used
the word “evil” to describe
messages exchanged betweenVardy and one of her agents. “The
messages that went on between
them were just evil.” Vardy had,
from the start, had a “Jotter Pad”
in front of her, unopened. Now she
lifted her pen and she started filling
in the O of Jotter on its cover.
A Berlin Wall of document boxes
had been placed on the court’s front
bench to create a barrier between
Vardy’s territory and that of the
Rooneys. And it was here that we
found Wayne, English football’s
onetime Bobby Dazzler, now
chunkier, pinker, more grizzled —
and bored. He contemplated his
fingers. He excavated his nose. He
drank cup after cup of water, so
much that during an interval he
darted off to the loo. But he was
listening. Because when Tomlinson
referred to a Rooney marital crisis
after Wayne “misbehaved” and
Coleen replied that there had been
“a few things over these years”,
Wayne started tugging on his
beard, so hard it nearly came off in
his hands.
Vardy was absent from the last
session of play. A substitution? “An
appointment,” insisted Tomlinson.
“She meant no disrespect.”
The show continues.Sketch
HANNAH MCKAY/REUTERSRebekah Vardy
doodled when
Coleen Rooney
spoke of “evil”
and trouble
with Wayne,
above rightHeard has not given away $7m divorce payoff as promised
as a victim of domestic abuse. Depp, 58,
was not mentioned by name but
says the article clearly referred
to him. Heard, 36, has coun-
tersued for $100 million.
Heard was questioned
about her public pledge
to donate her $7 million
divorce settlement to
the American Civil Lib-
erties Union (ACLU)
and the Children’s Hospi-
tal Los Angeles.
In heated exchanges withCamille Vasquez, one of Depp’s lawyers,
the actress admitted the money had
not yet been paid, despite
having previously made
statements under oath sug-
gesting that it had. “Un-
fortunately, I haven’t
been able to fulfil those
obligations,” Heard said,
“because I’ve been sued.”
Vasquez said Heard hadthe money for months before Depp
sued her yet failed to hand the cash over
as promised.
The actress repeatedly said that she
still intended to fulfil the obligation.
The trial was previously told that only
$1.3 million of the promised $3.5 million
had been donated to the ACLU.
She denied marrying Depp for his
money and said it was “incorrect” to say
she wanted public praise for her charit-
able donation. Heard also confirmed
that Elon Musk, her former boyfriend,
had made donations of $500,000 to theACLU and Children’s Hospital Los
Angeles “in my honour”.
Vasquez alleged that the reason
Heard had not donated the money
directly was because she wanted to
keep as much as possible for herself.
“You’re very wrong about that,”
Heard replied. Vasquez also suggested
Heard had “staged” pictures that por-
trayed Depp in a bad light, saying
Heard had no picture evidence to
support her claims of repeated beatings
at the hands of Depp.
The trial continues.Keiran Southern Los Angeles
Amber Heard testifying
in court yesterdayerred
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