Coleen Rooney tells court Rebekah Vardy monitored and stalked her

Mrs Rooney, the wife of former England player Wayne Rooney, was giving evidence at the High Court in London in the second week of the “Wagatha Christie” libel trial, following her 2019 social media post, which accused Ms Vardy of leaking stories to the tabloid press.

Ms Rooney (36) told the court that Ms Vardy (40), wife of Jamie Vardy, the Leicester City striker, and her agent, Caroline Watt, sent “evil and uncalled for” messages about her when they were discussing her private Instagram posts.

The court has previously heard that Ms Vardy and Ms Watt, who is no longer involved in the legal proceedings due to ill health, exchanged lengthy WhatsApp messages in which Ms Rooney was called a “nasty b****.”

“There is no need to talk about me or my Instagram, especially with Caroline Watt,” Ms Rooney told the court.

“I don’t know what Caroline Watt looks like – I’ve never spoken to her, never met her.”

She continued: “I’m totally the opposite of what they described.

“I’m not a bad person; the words they used are just totally untrue and there’s no need for it.

“I’ve done nothing to them for them to talk about, and monitor, and stalk me.”

The court heard that Ms Rooney concocted her plan to carry out a sting operation after she tried to remove Ms Vardy as a follower from her private Instagram account, but her fellow Wag noticed and texted her to ask why.

Ms Rooney said the pair were “not good friends” and that if someone had unfollowed her, she would “probably just forget about it and not message” the person, adding: “I wouldn’t have been that bothered, really.”

She added: “I felt it was ­suspicious. Obviously, I had suspicions in other ways, so this just added to the suspicions that I had.”

Ms Rooney admitted telling a “fib”, informing Ms Vardy that it was probably her ­children who always play with her phone.

After reinstating Ms Vardy as a follower on her private account, Ms Rooney started posting fake stories and changed the settings so that only Ms Vardy’s account could see them.

Over the course of the next few months, three of the stories appeared in The Sun, prompting Ms Rooney to reveal her findings on social media.

The court heard that Ms Rooney initially wrote her “Wagatha Christie” post down with a pen and paper in her notepad, before typing it up and sending it to her brother who manages her social media accounts.

Ms Rooney said she chose not to approach Ms Vardy privately with the accusation because she felt she would try to “cover it up” and “would not be truthful”.

After she shared the post, the court heard that Ms Vardy texted her saying, “what the f*** is this?”, to which Ms Rooney replied: “You know what it is.”

Ms Vardy then asked Mrs Rooney: “Who is your lawyer?”

Ms Rooney, who said she found the threat of legal ­letters and lawyers intimidating, was surprised that the story became “as big as it has been”.

The mother of four also discussed her rise to fame and reports of her husband’s ­inappropriate behaviour, ­telling the court: “There’s been a few unfortunate things that have happened in my life and they have got publicity.”

The hearing, which is expected to conclude on Thursday, continues.