Coleen Rooney 'accepts' Rebekah Vardy post is defamatory but denies causing 'harm'

dailystar.co.uk:

Rebekah Vardy's lawyer has told the Royal Courts of Justice that Coleen Rooney accepts her bombshell social media statement was defamatory.

Rooney, 36, sensationally claimed in October 2019 that after a "sting operation" she believed Rebekah's Instagram account was responsible for leaking stories to the British media.The pair are currently embroiled in a high profile libel case after Jamie Vardy's wife strenuously denied ever leaking stories but has recently claimed her former agent, Caroline Watt may have been responsible.In his skeleton argument, Hugh Tomlinson QC for Vardy said: "Although Mrs Rooney knew that Mrs Vardy was heavily pregnant she did not give her any advance notice that the Post was going to be published."She chose instead to publicly reveal Mrs Vardy as the culprit in a dramatic Post, crafted in the style of a 'whodunnit'."He added: "Mrs Vardy made strenuous but unsuccessful attempts to settle the case but the Post was not taken down."As a result, Mrs Vardy had no choice but to bring this libel action to establish her innocence and vindicate her reputation."Her reputation has been very seriously damaged by this false and defamatory allegation which was designed to achieve maximum impact and succeeded in its aim."While Coleen has previously told a hearing on April 29, 2022, the leaked information was "low-value gossip", Vardy's legal team claim the impact has been "far from trivial" due to the millions of people who can access it.Hugh Tomlinson continued: "It has been and continues to be, deeply upsetting in circumstances where she was not the person who leaked information about Mrs Rooney, Mrs Vardy needs to clear her name in order to ever be given a chance to move on from this horrendous episode."Mrs.