LONDON - Rebekah Vardy has conceded that she directed her agent to look at Coleen Rooney’s private Instagram account to obtain information about a car crash. Mrs Vardy was giving evidence at the High Court on the second day of her libel case against Mrs Rooney. Mrs Rooney is being sued for libel after claiming Mrs Vardy leaked private information she obtained on Instagram. The court heard Mrs Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne, read exchanges between Mrs Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt. In one exchange from January 2019, the court heard that Ms Watt asked Mrs Vardy: “Am I imagining this or did you say yesterday that Coleen had crashed her Honda?” “She defo has... Go in the Instagram,” Mrs Vardy replied, according to court documents, referring to Mrs Rooney’s private Instagram account, which Mrs Vardy could access from her own account because the pair followed each other. Mr Sherborne noted that, on the first day of the trial, Mrs Vardy had agreed it would have been “wrong” if Ms Watt was looking at people’s private Instagram posts through the use of Mrs Vardy’s own account.
On Wednesday, he put it to Mrs Vardy that, in this instance, she was directing her agent to Mrs Rooney’s Instagram. “Yes, I am,” Mrs Vardy replied.
The car crash story appeared in The Sun newspaper but Mrs Vardy denied having been the source.
Mrs Vardy said it was “undeniable” that her agent had seen something on Mrs Rooney’s Instagram account, but said she had no knowledge of Ms Watt “monitoring” it.
“If she had been monitoring Mrs Rooney’s Instagram, I had no knowledge of her monitoring it and I didn’t ask her for that,” she told the court.
Mrs Vardy also denied it was “standard practice” for her to pass private information to The Sun via her agent.
Earlier on Wednesday, the High Court heard that Mrs Vardy had told Ms Watt that she “wanted paying” for information about a footballer leaving police custody after crashing his car.
Mr Sherborne read out texts between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt about her husband Jamie’s former Leicester City team-mate Danny Drinkwater.
Mrs Vardy confirmed the texts also referred to The Sun writing a story but, with regard to wanting payment, said that “wasn’t a serious comment”.
She added: “It was a fleeting thought and one I didn’t consider any more then when I wrote it.”
When asked if Andy Halls, a reporter for The Sun, was a “good conduit” for information, she said: “No, that’s not the case. I never gave him information.”
Asked whether she stood by an earlier witness statement in which she said she had never been paid for private information about anybody apart from myself or my family, she replied: “Yes, apart from the Danny Drinkwater one.”
On Wednesday, he put it to Mrs Vardy that, in this instance, she was directing her agent to Mrs Rooney’s Instagram. “Yes, I am,” Mrs Vardy replied.
The car crash story appeared in The Sun newspaper but Mrs Vardy denied having been the source.
Mrs Vardy said it was “undeniable” that her agent had seen something on Mrs Rooney’s Instagram account, but said she had no knowledge of Ms Watt “monitoring” it.
“If she had been monitoring Mrs Rooney’s Instagram, I had no knowledge of her monitoring it and I didn’t ask her for that,” she told the court.
Mrs Vardy also denied it was “standard practice” for her to pass private information to The Sun via her agent.
Earlier on Wednesday, the High Court heard that Mrs Vardy had told Ms Watt that she “wanted paying” for information about a footballer leaving police custody after crashing his car.
Mr Sherborne read out texts between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt about her husband Jamie’s former Leicester City team-mate Danny Drinkwater.
Mrs Vardy confirmed the texts also referred to The Sun writing a story but, with regard to wanting payment, said that “wasn’t a serious comment”.
She added: “It was a fleeting thought and one I didn’t consider any more then when I wrote it.”
When asked if Andy Halls, a reporter for The Sun, was a “good conduit” for information, she said: “No, that’s not the case. I never gave him information.”
Asked whether she stood by an earlier witness statement in which she said she had never been paid for private information about anybody apart from myself or my family, she replied: “Yes, apart from the Danny Drinkwater one.”
