Wagatha Christie: Coleen has become ‘a different mother, a different wife’ because of trial, Wayne Rooney says

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Wayne Rooney has said that his wife Coleen has “become a different mother, a different wife” because of the stress of the ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel trial.

Speaking from the witness stand at the High Court on Tuesday, the former England captain and Derby County manager said they he and his wife “don’t want to be in this court”.

“I’ve watched my wife over the last two and a half years really struggle with everything ... becoming a different mother, a different wife,” he said.

“It’s been been very traumatic for my wife.”

Rebekah Vardy, 39, is suing Ms Rooney, 35, for defamation after Ms Rooney publicly accused the latter of being the source of stories about her that were leaked to The Sun newspaper.

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, Rebekah’s husband, was in court for the first time on Tuesday. Mr and Ms Vardy were listening as Mr Rooney told the court: “Hopefully whatever the judgment is in this case, myself, my wife and our children can get on and live our lives because it was not something that we wanted to be part of.”

Wayne Rooney also said that his wife is “an independent woman, who does her own thing, and I didn’t want to get involved at all.”

He said that in 2017 Ms Rooney spoke to him about leaks of her private information to The Sun. But he didn’t know anything else about it until 2019, he told the court.

“In 2019 again she said there was more stories or posts getting released to the Sun newspaper and she believed it was Rebekah Vardy,” he said.

Asked by Ms Vardy’s lawyer Mr Tomlinson whether he was surprised that his wife thought Ms Vardy was the source of the leaks, Mr Rooney said: “To that, not much, was I surprised? No.”

“Again I didn’t want to get involved in it. I had my own work at the time I was still playing football and Coleen works independently herself and it’s not something we discussed again.”

Mr Rooney said that he was in America when his wife put up her infamous ‘Wagatha Christie’ post and he had no prior knowledge of it.

Mr Rooney said that the trial has been hard to sit through. “It’s been a long week it’s the first time I’ve heard everything on this case. I’ve never discussed it with my wife.”

He condemned the online abuse against Ms Vardy as “disgusting”, adding: “It’s not right”.

“I’m here to support my wife,” Mr Rooney said. “This week here is the first time really that I have any understanding of how it’s all happened.”

The trial continues.