Inside Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy's 'sibling like' friendship before famous fallout

Coleen and Rebekah
-Credit: (Image: Getty)


Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy's famous Wagatha Christie fallout has hit headlines once again following Coleen's jungle debut on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

The 38-year-old made reference to her well-known feud with ex pal Rebekah for the first time to her fellow campmates during last night's episode of the ITV show - a moment the entire nation has been waiting for.

Meanwhile at home, Rebekah, who formerly appeared on I'm a Celeb back in 2017, has made her own fair share of comments despite previously claiming that she was over the Wagatha Christie drama.

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Coleen Rooney
Coleen opened up about the Wagatha Christie scandal to Jane Moore, Dean McCullough and GK Barry during last nights episode -Credit:ITV/REX/Shutterstock

She has already branded the show as the "gift that keeps on giving" in her column with The Sun after Coleen "sank in the river twice" during the first episode.

Rebekah, 42, has also slammed radio presenter Dean McCullough for "cosying up" to her arch nemesis saying: "It's so very obvious and, believe me, it is going to get tiresome. He absolutely loves to talk about Wagatha and when he does he knows he's going to get airtime from it."

Despite all of the hostility between the two women, there was a time when the pair were actually friends before their explosive fall-out in 2019.

Here we take a look back at Coleen and Rebekah's friendship timeline.

Rebekah's 'idol'

Before the two women were even friends, Rebekah is said to have dreamed of a life like Coleen's with her husband Wayne Rooney, and also aspired to be pals with her WAG idol, according to claims from her ex-boyfriend Luke Foster.

Rebekah, Jamie Vardy
Rebekah Vardy entered the WAG premier league when she married Jamie Vardy in 2016 -Credit:Getty Images Europe

The former Oxford United player dated Rebekah before she went on to marry Leicester City captain Jamie Vardy.

In a bitter interview after their split, Foster told the Daily Mail that he had showered his ex-girlfriend of six years with lavish gifts and bought a home for them in Nottingham but she had always wanted more.

He said: "Becky liked the finer things in life. She wanted the biggest house on the street, expensive handbags.

"She’s now got the husband she always wanted, one who can keep her in the lifestyle she’s dreamt of. Becky upgraded. She said that to my face. She said he’d treat her a hell of a lot better."

While the mum-of-six has always denied these claims, it seems she got what she wanted as she has now updated to Premier League WAG status since tying-the-knot with Jamie in 2016 and also fulfilled her aspirations of becoming a once close friend of Coleen.

'Twinning' at matches

There was a time when Rebekah and Coleen seemed as tight as two peas in a pod as they regularly attended football matches together to cheer on their husbands.

Coleen Rooney and Rebecca Vardy
Wayne's post offered comic relief amid Coleen's legal war with Rebekah Vardy -Credit:Daily Mirror/Andy Stenning

The former besties famously sat beside one another during the England v Wales game at the Euro 2016 championships and were both seen celebrating together as England triumphed 2-1 over Wales.

The two WAGS were once even compared to siblings in their matching large sunglasses and glossy locks which both hung around their shoulders.

However, just three years later, Coleen would go on to publicly accuse Rebekah of selling stories about her to the tabloids.

Despite years of running in the same circles with their husbands being teammates and sharing close friends, Coleen later told the Times that her relationship with Rebekah had always felt "unnatural".

Famous fall-out

Rebekah and Coleen's friendship came to an abrupt end in 2019 after Coleen publicly accused Rebekah of going behind her back in an explosive Twitter rant.

Coleen Rooney
Coleen made the shock accusation that the user of Rebekah Vardy's Instagram account had been selling stories about her to a tabloid in 2019 -Credit:coleenrooney/Instagram

She wrote: "This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it......For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing THE SUN newspaper of my private posts and stories."

Coleen revealed she had blocked everyone from viewing her private stories apart from one person and posted a series of fake stories to see if they would make their way back to The Sun newspaper.

She then wrote: "I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s ……….Rebekah Vardy’s account."

At the time of her accusation, Rebekah was pregnant with her fifth child Olivia and was reportedly left "inconsolable" over the tweets.

She publicly responded to Coleen and denied the betrayal before later saying in an interview with The Sun: "Why didn’t she pick up the phone? I have been so upset by it – and I’m heavily pregnant too.

"Now I’m getting death threats saying I should die and my unborn child should die. That’s why I’m determined to get to the bottom of what has gone on and clear my name."

Court battle

Rebekah took Coleen to court in 2020, launching a libel case against her which she later lost in July 2022.

Mrs Justice Steyn found Coleen's claims of Rebekah leaking her private details to the press to be "substantially true."

In October 2022, Rebekah was ordered to cover 90 percent of Coleen's legal fees, with an initial payment of £800,000 demanded. This comes after Coleen Rooney alleged that her legal expenses from the infamous Wagatha Christie libel case exceeded £1.8 million, as informed to the High Court.

Coleen opened up about the case to her I'm a Celeb jungle campmates last night as she admitted it had been her "worst nightmare" and it felt like she was putting on "a show for the whole world."

Confessing that the situation left her feeling very 'ashamed' and 'drained', she said: "What got me, over the whole thing, was it became a bit of a joke and that’s really disappointing, it wasn’t a joke for me. No one knew the full story."

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