Ali Condon
Rebekah Vardy's lawyer made a savage Bridgerton joke in the launch of her case against Coleen Rooney this week.
The 'Wagatha Christie' High Court case began this Tuesday and is expected to last for seven days.
After publicly claiming Vardy had shared three fake stories she had posted on her personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper, Rooney is now being sued by Vardy for libel.
Advert
Kicking off the trial on Tuesday afternoon, Vardy's lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson, detailed the 'abuse and threats' that his client had faced as a result of Rooney's claim.
He went on to suggest that Rooney 'revelled' in being dubbed 'Wagatha Christie' following her 2019 'sting operation'.
Tomlinson told the court: "Anybody who knows anything about the operation of social media knows the fact somebody has an account does not necessarily mean that they are the only person who accessed it."
He went on to claim that Rooney's original claim specifically accused Vardy of leaking stories to the press, joking that Rooney had pegged Vardy as similar to Bridgerton's Lady Whistledown.
In Netflix's Bridgerton, Lady Whistledown is the name used by an anonymous writer – later found to be Penelope Featherington – who details the scandalous gossip among those in high society.
Taking a light-hearted jab at Rooney, Tomlinson suggested that she believes everything she reads in the Wag football gossip column is accurate.
He told the court: "Mrs Rooney thinks the Secret Wag column is a real life version of Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton, rather than a journalistic invention."
In preparation for the trial launch, several hearings have taken, including one where texts between Vardy and agent Caroline Watt emerged.
In February, Rooney's barrister, David Sherborne, told the High Court that a 'series of unfortunate events' have happened over the evidence in the case, notably Watt’s phone falling into the North Sea.
Most recently, the High Court was told by Sherborne that Vardy 'appears to accept' that Watt was the source of leaked stories about Rooney that were published in The Sun newspaper.
Watt had been due to give evidence in the trial, but was recently found to be 'not fit' to take part, also withdrawing her written evidence.
The trial continues.