1. To begin with, Rooney shared that she wasn’t a big fan of the “Wagatha Christie” label. When asked about the infamy she had gained for her sting operation, she told the court, “I’ve hated every minute of it.”,2. Rooney planted several fake stories as part of her investigation, which she told nobody about, including her husband, Wayne.,3. A catalog of messages went missing after a phone belonging to Vardy’s agent Caroline Watt “regrettably” fell into the North Sea. (Remember that name because we’ll come back to her.),4. Vardy’s laptop was also “disposed of” because it was “damaged beyond repair,” the court was told.,5. The court crossover we didn’t see coming was when lawyers for Rooney referenced Depp’s
Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise and suggested that Watt’s phone was at the bottom of the sea in Davy Jones’ locker. Cue confusion from Vardy, who replied, “Who’s Davy Jones?”,6. And the crossover continued, since Rooney’s barrister David Sherborne also previously represented Depp during his UK libel trial against the Sun newspaper in 2020.,7. And he made sure to earn his fee from the start. When Vardy started answering a question by saying, “If I’m being honest…,” Sherborne quickly jumped in to quip, “I would hope you’re being honest since you’re in the witness box at the High Court.”,8. When lawyers for Rooney went down a line of questioning intended to present Vardy as a villain with no respect for people’s privacy, it was ’90s one-hit wonder Peter Andre who had his name invoked.,9. Forget Lady Whistledown — Vardy was accused of being The Secret WAG, an anonymous Sun columnist billed as having a “front-row seat to the debauched world of English football.”,10. While a lot of the receipts seemed to be drowned or stored on a broken laptop, what was available painted a very vivid picture of Vardy and her agent regularly discussing schemes to leak stories over text.,11. Vardy insisted that she had nothing to gain by selling stories, calling all mention of it in her correspondence with her agent “a joke” or “gossip” between friends.,12. Except for that time she seriously considered leaking a story about her husband’s former teammate Danny Drinkwater after he had been caught driving while intoxicated.,13. But back to Watt, with whom Vardy said she shared access to her Instagram account, which also meant she was able to view Rooney’s private stories.,14. So what did the agent have to say for herself? Well, nothing. She was not present for the duration of the trial; she was said not to be fit to give oral evidence as she was in a “fragile state of mind” and also revoked permission for her witness statement to be used.,15. And Watt seemed to revel in revealing that she had shared information about Rooney with journalists.,16. In an interview shortly after Rooney’s big reveal, Vardy compared arguing with her to arguing with a pigeon.,17. This entire court case was Vardy’s idea. With all that’s been made public, you would think both women would have been better served handling this privately with a penalty shoot-out but no, it’s a weeklong trial.