Wagatha Christie: All you need to know about the legal battle between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy

The 'Wagatha Christie' court trial began in London on Tuesday (May 10) as two of England's high-profile football spouses went up against each other in a legal battle pending for over a couple of years now. Coleen Rooney had accused Rebekah Vardy of leaking fake stories about her in the media, including a private Instagram post in 2019.

Followed by Coleen's allegations, Vardy decided to sue her after denying the allegations againsther. Rebekah also filed a libel suit against Coleen, who is the wife of former England football team and Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney. Rebekah, on the other hand, is the spouse of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy.

Both Rooney and Vardy played together for England in the Euros 2016 when pictures of Coleen and Rebekah supporting their respective husbands from the stands had gone viral on social media. However, it didn't take much time for the friends to turn foes after Coleen made some shocking allegations against Rebekah.

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All you need to know about the Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy feud

The feud stems back to October, 2019 when Coleen suspected someone was leaking her private stuff to the media. She claimed she posted fake stories on her Instagram and restricted them to limited accounts that could view them. Coleen said she blocked everyone apart from an account belonging to Vardy to see if the information from her stories would still get leaked.

The information did get leaked and appeared in The Sun - A leading English daily leading to a never-ending feud between the two football WAGs. Coleen took to Twitter to allege it was Rebekah who had been leaking her information to the media all this while.

While it was reported that Rebekah did try to explain her side of the story to Coleen on phone and also posted on social media, there was no response from Coleen. Rebekah later decided to sue Coleen for libel which gave birth to the 'Wagatha Christie' trial.

The name 'Wagatha Christie' came from the famous term 'Wag' which is commonly used for the wives and girlfriends of sports stars.

As the trial began on Tuesday, Rebekah's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson defended his client by denying Coleen's claims that she leaked her information to the media. The lawyer also revealed that Rebekah had made "strenuous but unsuccessful attempts" to settle the matter but Coleen's post accusing her was not taken down.

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Both Coleen and Rebekah arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday where a group of photographers waited in anticipation for the two star WAGs. The trial is expected to last a week where both Coleen and Rebekah will testify against each other.

While the trial has been subject to intense media coverage, it has been labelled as a 'waste of time' by legal experts. As per reports, the legal costs of the trial are expected to go past 1 million pounds and the winner will recover around only 70% of the money spent duringthe legal proceedings.