We here at PEDESTRIAN.TV often cover high-profile relationship drama, and we occasionally cover football, but the combination of the two is insanely rare. Simply put, very little news involving those two worlds is spicy enough to grace our hallowed website.
This drama, though? Hachi machi.
The English footballing world was rocked overnight by an allegation that someone using the Instagram account of Rebekah Vardy, wife of Premier League-winning striker Jamie Vardy, has habitually leaked personal information about Coleen and Wayne Rooney to reviled tabloid The Sun.
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Taking to Twitter last night, occasional TV personality Coleen Rooney said she has long been targeted by invasive stories in The Sun, which featured personal information she only shared with family and friends.
She told her followers she had formed a suspicion: someone in her close circle was leaking personal information from her private Instagram account to the press.
Rooney then explained step one in her plan to find the culprit.
“To try to prove this, I came up with an idea. I blocked everyone from viewing my Instagram stories except ONE account,” she said.
Step two? Well, that involved Rooney posting fake content on her account, and seeing if those ridiculous stories wound up in The Sun.
“Over the past five months I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into the Sun newspaper,” she said.
“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.”
After discussing the weight of keeping her findings to herself, Rooney dropped the hammer.
“I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them,” she said.
“It’s ……… Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it…… pic.twitter.com/0YqJAoXuK1
— Coleen Rooney (@ColeenRoo) October 9, 2019
There’s a little bit to unpack here. Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney, who’ve respectively led Leicester City and Manchester United to Premier League titles, toiled together in the English national team before Rooney’s retirement from international duties.
It is entirely conceivable that in addition to attending the same games, their partners spent some time operating in similar social circles, making the allegation muy picante.
Then there’s The Sun itself. While the paper is looked at with disdain across much of the UK, it is hated in Liverpool, the home city of both Coleen and Wayne Rooney. You can read why here.
Vardy has disputed Rooney’s characterisation of the situation, using her Twitter account to present the argument someone else has access to her Instagram account.
“I’m not being funny but I don’t need the money, what would I gain from selling stories on you?” she said.
“I liked you a lot Coleen & I’m so upset that you have chosen to do this, especially when I am heavily pregnant. I’m disgusted that I’m even having to deny this.”
https://twitter.com/RebekahVardy/status/1181871914081509376
The allegations sent a shockwave through football Twitter, which promptly memed the entire situation.
good afternoon to no-one except rebekah vardy, because i have blocked everyone but her
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) October 9, 2019
Rebekah Vardy looking at Coleen Rooney’s insta pic.twitter.com/idCBB0B09u
— Ross Sayers (@Sayers33) October 9, 2019
coleen rooney posting fake stories to insta only to reveal to rebekah vardy it was all a trap https://t.co/vZJHpwWzxa
— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 9, 2019
Zoinks! It’s……….Rebekah Vardy! #RooneyvVardy #WagathaChristie pic.twitter.com/YCLk4yDapT
— The Jase 🐶 🎸 🎥 (@jasemonkey) October 9, 2019
Rebekah Vardy today…. pic.twitter.com/GegLWOiXbG
— Danny Beard 🤡 (@thedannybeard) October 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/JamesMetcalfe13/status/1181968107285417985
Rebekah Vardy vs the lie detector pic.twitter.com/uh6CztWYW2
— Ireland Simpsons Fans (@iresimpsonsfans) October 9, 2019
Even OptaSports, which usually reports on match stats, got involved in the fracas.
0 – Despite spending four hours & 22 minutes together on the pitch for England in total, Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney never created a single goalscoring chance for one another. Awkward. pic.twitter.com/qS4H1G93nN
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 9, 2019
It’s yet to be seen what comes of the bombshell claim, but this drama is already the biggest football scandal since… well, okay, football has a lot of enormous scandals, but this one is pretty juicy. Go ahead and follow the #WAGathaChristie hashtag if you’re keen to see how this one plays out.
