This archive report was first published on 9 October 2019.
On October 9, 2019, a Twitter spat between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, wives of former England international footballers Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy, respectively, gripped Britain.
Coleen Rooney, 33, revealed that she had spent five months trying to identify who was leaking her private Instagram stories to the British tabloid The Sun.
She claimed to have conducted a sting operation, blocking all Instagram accounts except for Rebekah Vardy's from viewing her stories, and then posting false information, some of which was published in The Sun.
Rooney stated, "I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It's... Rebekah Vardy's account."
Rebekah Vardy, 37, who is pregnant with her fifth child, responded by saying she was "so upset" and "disgusted" by the accusation, adding, "You should have called me the first time this happened."
The Sun reported that each of the stories provided to them was put to Coleen's representatives before publication, and on each occasion, they declined to comment.
