The wives of former England football internationals Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy have become embroiled in a social media row over “leaked stories.”
Coleen Rooney said she suspected a follower on her personal Instagram account of leaking stories to British tabloid newspaper The Sun.
Rooney says she blocked the account of every follower from viewing her Instagram stories, except the one she suspected: Rebekah Vardy.
“Over the past five months, I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into the Sun newspaper,” Rooney wrote in a post on her social media accounts.
“And you know what, they did! The story about gender selection in Mexico, the story about returning to TV and then the latest story about the basement flooding in my new house.
“I have saved and screenshotted the original stories which clearly show just one personal has viewed them. It’s … Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
In response to the accusations, Vardy says she has not spoken to anybody about Rooney – who became famous as a British media personality – and suggested that her Instagram account may have been accessed by somebody else.
“As I have just said to you on the phone, I wish you had called me if you thought this,” Vardy wrote, referring to Rooney. “I never speak to anybody about you as various journalists who have asked me to over the years can vouch for.
“If you thought this was happening, you could have told me and I could have changed my password to see if it stopped. I liked you a lot Coleen and I’m so upset that you have chosen to do this, especially while I am heavily pregnant.”
When asked by CNN about its verification process for publishing stories, The Sun referred back to its article on the story, which says: “Each of the stories provided to The Sun was put to Coleen’s representatives before publication, and on each occasion they declined to comment.”
Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy played together several times for the England national team. Both have since retired from international duty, with Vardy continuing to play for Premier League club Leicester City and former Manchester United star Rooney playing for Major League Soccer side DC United.