Wagatha Christie trial: Rebekah Vardy ‘wanted paying’ for leak about footballer’s arrest, court told

Rebekah Vardy said she “wanted paying” for leaking information about a footballer who had been arrested, a court has been told.

The 40-year-old took the stand on the second day of her libel trial against Coleen Rooney, who has accused Ms Vardy of leaking “false stories” about her to the press.

Ms Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne, asked Ms Vardy about messages with her agent Caroline Watt, including some about Danny Drinkwater - a footballer who was arrested for crashing his car while over the legal drink limit in 2019.

Ms Vardy messaged her agent saying she had a story about Danny Drinkwater being arrested and said he had crashed his car with two girls in it while drink-driving, the court heard.

“He’s only just been let out of the cells last night!” Ms Vardy wrote.

Ms Watt suggested she leak the information to The Sun and Ms Vardy reminded her to get some money in return for the story tip.

Speaking about her demand for payment, Ms Vardy told the court: “It was a fleeting thought and I haven’t considered it anymore than when I wrote it.”

She said: “I am deeply affected by drink driving ... at the time I didn’t care whether the information came out or not. It wasn’t a serious comment.”

Caroline Watt told Ms Vardy in messages, read out to the court, that she had shared the information with a Sun reporter.

“It is something that wrongly I got involved with,” Ms Vardy told the court, “and for that I can only apologise. But it was something that really affected me.”

After being told someone had already leaked information from a police station, Ms Vardy said “f*** someone already tipped it” and she was “fuming” she had not given her agent the information earlier, the court heard.

Mr Sherborne suggested Mrs Vardy was angry about “the fact that you’re not going to get your money”. “No, that’s not true,” she replied.

Ms Vardy - who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy - said she did not know why she said she was “fuming”.

The 40-year-old also denied the suggestion it was “standard practice” for her to leak private information to The Sun via her agent during her cross-examination on Wednesday.

The lawyer representing Ms Rooney, the wife of former England star and Derby County manager Wayne Rooney, asked her about other messages that discussed leaking - or potentially leaking - stories to the press on the second day of the High Court trial.

This includes messages showing she had discussed leaking a story to the press about Leicester City players being “fuming” that one of their teammates, Riyad Mahrez, had missed training. Ms Vardy told the court her agent had not leaked this story.

The 40-year-old also said she was “just joking” when she discussed with her agent leaking a cheating story about a mystery estranged celebrity couple.

Ms Rooney accused Ms Vardy of leaking “false stories” to the press in 2019. She explained how she had carried out her own investigation to try and find the source of the leaks in the post on social media.

She pinned the blame on Ms Vardy, ending the post with: “It’s..... Rebekah Vardy’s account”.

Ms Vardy has denied the allegations and is suing Ms Rooney for libel.