Rebekah Vardy news – live: Model to retake stand on third day of Coleen Rooney trial

Rebekah Vardy is set to retake the witness stand as her libel trial against fellow footballer’s wife Coleen Rooney continues.

It will be the third day in a row the 40-year-old will be cross-examined for the legal challenge, which centres on Ms Rooney accusing Ms Vardy of leaking “false stories” about her to the press.

Ms Vardy denies the allegations and is suing Ms Rooney, who is married to former England star Wayne Rooney, for libel.

The trial has so far seen Ms Vardy quizzed about messages with her agent discussing leaking - or potentially leaking - stories to the press. The wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy denied to the High Court leaking information to the The Sun was “standard practice”.

It has also involved mentions of footballers Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez, the “size of Peter Andre’s manhood” and Ms Rooney following Ms Vardy on Instagram.

The trial is expected to resume at 10.30am.

Key Points

• Key takeaways from second day of trial

• Key takeaways from first day

• The 2019 accusation behind the libel battle

Rebekah Vardy denies Fern Hawkins was upset and embarrassed by World Cup photo

11:06 , Holly Bancroft

Rebekah Vardy has responded to claims that Harry Maguire’s girlfriend Fern Hawkins was “upset and embarrassed” by a stage photo taken of the footballer’s partners at the 2018 Russia World Cup.

In response to questioning from Mr Sherborne, Ms Vardy said: “Fern posted many of her own images of that night, where we were, what we were doing and what we were eating.”

Ms Vardy pulled a face when presented with the evidence that Ms Hawkin’s felt embarassed.

“You’re pulling a face again Mrs Vardy, why are you pulling a face?” Mr Sherborne said.

“Because it’s Mrs Robertson again,” Vardy said, referring to the person who gave evidence suggesting Ms Hawkin’s was embarassed.

“Well I’ll let your counsel put that face to her when she comes to give evidence,” Mr Sherborne replied.

Mr Sherborne has been taking Ms Vardy through her written statements and been quite aggressively grilling her on whether she has been consistently telling the truth.

He has been arguing that she amended her statements because she is not telling the truth.

“You are confusing me,” Ms Vardy told the court.

Rebekah Vardy is being quizzed about whether she organised a staged photo at the Russia World Cup

10:53 , Holly Bancroft

Rooney’s lawyer David Sherborne is grilling Rebekah Vardy about whether she organised papparazi to take a photo of a group of footballer’s wives at the 2018 Russia world cup.

Mr Sherborne said: “When we broke off we were in St Petersburg in the world cup in 2018.

“You’d arranged a number of the girlfriends or partners of the footballers in the england team to go for a meal in the restaurant.”

Mr Sherborne is reading out messages between Ms Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt.

In messages, Ms Watt tells Ms Vardy: “Got a photographer sorted for tomorrow night too.”

Vardy replies: “Ok”, she later updates her to say that the girls might need to make their “way down in the restaurant car”. Watt replies: “Ok hope he catches you all.”

Later, when the girls emerge from the restaurant and are confronted by a photographer. Vardy texts Watt saying: “F*** I made everyone go outside for a pic and the pap was there.. it looks like I tipped him off now.”

Vardy has denied that she organised a paparazi to capture all the footballer’s wives after the dinner. She said the photographer was just meant to picture her coming out of the hotel.

Message exchanges have been read out to court showing Vardy talking with Watt about how to delay the girls putting the group photo on Instagram. Rooney’s lawyer has said that Vardy was doing this so that the paparazi can still have a photo exclusive.

Vardy has said she doesn’t know about the paparazi exclusive.

“If I had intentionally arranged that picture on the step I would quite happily admit that I had,” she told the court.

Rebekah Vardy arrives at court

10:26 , Holly Bancroft

Rebekah Vardy has arrived at the High Court to begin her third day of testifying in the witness box.

Coleen and Wayne Rooney arrive at the High Court

10:19 , Holly Bancroft

Coleen and Wayne Rooney have arrived at the High Court for day three of Rebekah Vardy’s libel trial against Ms Rooney.

The couple stepped out of a black Mercedes van before walking in through the main entrance of the court past a dozen photographers.

Ms Rooney, wearing a black dress, walked side-by-side with her husband, who was wearing a blue suit.

Main stories from second day of evidence

10:00 , Zoe Tidman

Only half an hour left until the trial is expected to kick off again.

Here is a quick look at some of the main stories from Rebekah Vardy’s evidence yesterday:

Rebekah Vardy and agent discussed leaking Mahrez training story to press, court told

Rebekah Vardy tells court she was ‘just joking’ amid claim she leaked story

Rebekah Vardy called Coleen Rooney a ‘c***’ for unfollowing her, court hears

Vardy cries in dock on second day

09:47 , Zoe Tidman

Rebekah Vardy was briefly moved to tears in the witness box yesterday as the High Court heard details of the abuse her family had faced.

Tom Ambrose has more:

Wagatha Christie: Rebekah Vardy cries in dock as court hears details of online abuse

‘It’s...... Rebekah Vardy’s account'

09:16 , Zoe Tidman

And here is the post - still on social media - that detailed the “sting” operation that earned Coleen Rooney the nickname “Wagatha Christie”:

2019: Rooney accuses Vardy of leaking stories about her to the press

09:00 , Zoe Tidman

Before Rebekah Vardy retakes the witness stand today, here is a reminder of the story more than two years ago that kicked the whole thing off:

Coleen Rooney accuses Rebekah Vardy of leaking her Instagram stories to ‘The Sun’

Key takeaways from first day

08:41 , Zoe Tidman

And incase you missed it, Chiara Giordano runs through the key takeaways from the first day of the trial on Tuesday - including the surprise mention of Peter Andre:

Seven most explosive moments from first day of ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel trial

What happened yesterday?

08:21 , Zoe Tidman

Rebekah Vardy is set to retake the stand today.

When she was cross-examined yesterday, it included mentions of Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez and Coleen Rooney unfollowing her on Instagram.

Holly Bancroft breaks down the key points from the second day of the trial:

Rooney vs Vardy: Six key moments from day two as Vardy admits trying to leak story

08:19 , Zoe Tidman

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of “Wagatha Christie” trial as it enters its third day.