Rebekah Vardy blames Wayne Rooney’s ‘Mrs Manager’ in new Wagatha Christie evidence

Rebekah Vardy blamed Wayne Rooney’s “Mrs Manager” for claims about her role in the Euro 2016 tournament, a string of newly released messages from the Wagatha Christie libel trial have revealed.

The two footballers’ wives have been in court for the past two weeks after Mrs Vardy, wife of Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, sued Mrs Rooney, wife of Derby manager Wayne Rooney, for libel over a social media post that accused her of leaking stories to the media.

On Friday, evidence was released including previously unseen photographs of the Rooneys and Whatsapp messages between Mrs Vardy and her husband where she appeared to blame her rival for claims that she was causing problems at the 2016 Euros.

In June 2016, Mrs Vardy sent a screenshot to her husband of an article that claimed Mr Rooney, then England captain, had to ask Mr Vardy “to make sure her wife lowers her social media profile during [the] Euros”.

Commenting on the origin of the article, Mrs Vardy said: “Jesus … This must have come from somewhere! Bet it’s his Mrs Manager.”

Mr Vardy, who did not give evidence under oath in the Wagatha Christie trial, denied such a chat with Mr Rooney had taken place, telling his wife that “not a word was said”.

Mrs Vardy responded by saying the article “makes my blood boil”.

‘Problems and distractions’

The messages come after Mr Rooney took to the stand on Tuesday and told the court that he had been tasked by then England manager Roy Hodgson with the “awkward” job of telling Mr Vardy that his wife, Rebekah, was causing “problems and distractions” for the England team due to her love of the limelight.

“They asked me as captain if I would be able to speak to Mr Vardy on issues regarding his wife. I think we all knew it was an awkward subject,” Mr Rooney told the court.

“I spoke to Mr Vardy and asked him to speak to his wife, to ask his wife to calm down and not bring any issues that were off the field.”

When cross-examined by Mrs Vardy’s barrister about the reliability of his claims, Mr Rooney responded: “I’m sat here under oath. I 100 per cent spoke to Mr Vardy. If he wants to speak to his wife and relay it back to her, that’s his business.”

Pictures from Mrs Rooney’s private Instagram account were also released in the large bundle of evidence, including an October 31 2017 post of Mr Rooney and three of his sons in pyjamas in bed.

Mrs Rooney claimed that she made a “conscious decision” not to upload the photograph with him to her public Instagram account due to “the difficulties between us at the time”.

On her public Instagram account, Mrs Rooney only posted a photo of herself with her then three sons Kai, Klay and Kit, wearing matching pyjamas. But she was angered a few days later, when a story appeared in The Sun clearly based on the private image featuring her husband.

“The GRASS strikes again!!!! I put that picture on wondering if it would appear in that horrible newspaper,” she wrote on her account.

Mrs Justice Steyn, who finished hearing legal arguments in the case on Thursday, will hand down her judgment at a later date.