Rebekah Vardy repeatedly broke down in tears again today as she was questioned by her lawyer – after earlier telling the High Court that comparing Peter Andre’s manhood to a ‘chipolata’ was ‘one of the biggest regrets of my life’.
The WAG became emotional in the witness box as she responded to questions about messages she exchanged with a journalist on the fourth day of the £3million libel trial – where she is facing off against her bitter rival, Coleen Rooney.
The High Court case follows a viral social media post in October 2019, where Coleen, 36, said she had carried out a ‘sting operation’ and accused Rebekah, 40, of leaking ‘false stories’ about her private life to the press.
Rebekah denies leaking stories to the media and is suing her fellow footballer’s wife for libel, while Coleen is defending the claim on the basis her post was ‘substantially true’ and in the public interest.
Coleen has now taken to the stand to deliver her testimony, after describing in court documents how she offered an ‘olive branch’ to Rebekah to stop her legal action but it was ‘in vain’.
She also claimed her rival leaked a story about Coleen’s husband Wayne being caught drink-driving with a woman he met in a bar.
During Rebekah’s testimony earlier today, her barrister, Hugh Tomlinson QC, described how ‘from time to time’ she had messaged journalist Simon Boyle, to whom Rebekah gave an interview when he was at the Mirror in 2016.
Mr Tomlinson asked Rebekah why she had messaged him last year.’I was angry, I was angry at repeated articles mocking my misery, mocking my hurt, mocking my upset’, she said.
She objected to being seen as ‘entertainment’, adding: ‘I didn’t find it funny. It was hurtful. It was upsetting.This was my life.’
Rebekah said that Mr Boyle was ‘quite sympathetic’ in response. With Rebekah becoming tearful, and reaching for a tissue, the judge ordered that the court take a 10-minute break. Halts to the case had to be called twice yesterday after the WAG became tearful.
Within minutes of the court resuming today, Rebekah began sobbing again when asked about her state of mind when she had her fourth baby, barely two months after Coleen’s Wagatha post.
‘I wasn’t in a good place,’ she said.
Asked when her daughter was born, she said, crying: 28 December, 2019 and repeated the date.She was offered the chance to compose herself, but continued giving evidence.
Earlier, Mr Tomlinson asked her about comments she made in a 2004 News of the World kiss and tell story which compared Peter Andre’s manhood to a ‘chipolata’.
Asked whether the quotes in the article were all from her, Rebekah replied: ‘There are a lot of things in there which didn’t come out of my mouth.’
She said of the article – which compared Andre’s manhood to a ‘small chipolata, shaved, slobbery, lasts five minutes’: ‘It’s shameful really, one of my biggest regrets.’
Rebekah, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, said she was ‘very young at the time’.
When asked if she has spoken to Andre about it since, she said: ‘I haven’t spoken to him but I sent both his wife and him personal messages a couple of years ago.’
Among the key claims heard in the High Court on day four of the gripping case –
- COLEEN’S TESTIMONY –
- Coleen ‘offered an olive branch’ to Rebekah to stop her legal action but it was ‘in vain’;
- Rebekah ‘leaked details of Wayne Rooney’s marital woes after he was caught drink-driving with a woman he met in a bar’;
- REBEKAH’S TESTIMONY –
- Rebekah insists she only discussed Coleen’s private Instagram account with her PR agent Caroline Watt ‘a handful of times’;
- Calls her Peter Andre ‘chipolata’ 2004 kiss-and-tell interview ‘one of my biggest regrets’;
- Admits she texted ‘FFS’ message to footballer Danny Drinkwater after his drink-drive crash before leaking the story;
- Denies being behind ‘leaks’ of stories about Riyad Mahrez, an unnamed celebrity ‘cheating with a footballer’, and Coleen’s 2019 DC car crash;
- Claims she ‘didn’t know’ what her agent was implying when she said about ‘it’s on her private Instagram so we can’t do anything with it after spotting that one of the Rooney’s children wasn’t wearing a seatbelt;
- Says that after Coleen’s Instagram reveal she suffered, ‘Constant anxiety, panic attacks, and I was scared I was going to lose my baby’;
- Denies ever purposefully deleting her WhatsApp messages after evidence ‘went missing’;
- Says being cross-examined by Coleen’s QC David Sherborne was ‘exhausting, intimidating – I feel like I’ve been bullied and manipulated’;
- Wayne Rooney told Rebekah a newspaper story claiming he wanted her to keep a lower profile was a ‘load of b*******’;
Coleen and Wayne Rooney walked through a crowd of photographers as they entered the Royal Courts of Justice for the fourth day of the Wagatha Christie libel trial
Rebekah, meanwhile, bore a stern expression as she walked up to the steps of the famous court accompanied by her bodyguards