Premier League star Jamie Vardy has been dragged into the 'Wagatha Christie' legal battle between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney after his mobile phone was searched by his wife's legal team.
The latest round of the costly legal row between the two WAGS is currently being played out in the High Court over claims the Ms Vardy leaked stories about Ms Rooney in the media.
Lawyers for Ms Rooney, 35, are requesting full disclosure of all communication between Ms Vardy, 39, and her agent Caroline Watt, who they argue worked together to leak the stories to The Sun.
In turn, Ms Vardy's lawyers are demanding further disclosure of communications between Ms Rooney and six people they maintain are close to her and could help prove their case that their client was not behind the leaks.
Now it has emerged that Jamie's phone has been examined by experts appointed by Ms Vardy's lawyers after she initially claimed that he was one of three people who had access to her Instagram account. The other two are his social media manger Adam Jones and Ms Watt.
A High Court judge ordered that mobile phones belonging to Jamie and the other two individuals be examined during a hearing last year, when he declared: 'Mrs Vardy has given access (to her Instagram account) to her husband, his social media manager and Mrs Watt. I'm perfectly satisfied that their devices are up for grabs for inspection and analysis by the experts.
'The experts need to have access to more than just the personal devices of Mrs Vardy and Mrs Rooney.'
Ms Vardy later revealed that Jamie did not even have access to her Instagram account during the relevant period but his phone was still searched on the basis that he had the password to it.
On the second day of the High Court hearing for greater disclosure of evidence Hugh Tomlinson, QC representing Ms Vardy claimed that WhatsApp messages between her and Ms Watt, which were presented in court and showed the two women abusing Ms Rooney and discuss leaking stories about her had been 'taken out of context.'
He denied that Ms Vardy saying 'She's a nasty bitch' in a WhatsApp message to her agent was a reference to Ms Rooney.
Mr Tomlinson insisted that the message, along with others, had been taken out of context and that earlier messages showed she was talking about somebody else.
He told the court: 'That's not right, this isn't a passage about Mrs Rooney, this is a passage about someone else.'
He also maintained that another message in which Ms Vardy refers to being 'up her own a**e' was also not about Ms Rooney, as had been alleged.
Mr Tomlinson further insisted that a message in which Ms Vardy wrote to her agent, 'would love to leak those stories' actually indicated that she did not leak stories about Ms Rooney.
He added: 'The question is whether stories are leaked. Her saying I would have loved to have leaked a story suggests she didn't leak a story.
'If you say I would have loved to have gate-crashed that party, loved to have an affair with that person, or whatever it is, it's an indication of the reverse, not an indication that she did it.
'It's an expression of a desire to do something which you didn't, not an indication that she did it.'
David Sherborne, representing Ms Rooney claimed that Ms Vardy encouraged her agent to leak stories to The Sun newspaper.
He said: 'She had the means to leak the stories because she had access to Mrs Rooney's private Instagram account and encouraged Ms Watt to [share them].
'Mrs Vardy knew perfectly well what she [Ms Watt] was doing and was behind it and encouraging it.'
Referring to Ms Watt, he added: 'She was the person who was actively finding and monitoring Mrs Rooney's private Instagram account and leaked private information from these posts to The Sun.'
Mr Tomlinson told Mrs Justice Steyn that Ms Vardy and her legal team wanted greater disclosure of communication between Ms Rooney and six people, who she had identified as 'custodians.'
They include her brother John McLoughlin, Wayne Rooney's sister; Claire Rooney; two PR advisors and football agent Paul Stretford.
Vardy's lawyers allege that Ms Rooney or her legal team have not made an attempt to conduct 'proper searches' of material belonging to them that is relevant to their case.
On Tuesday, the High Court heard how Rebekah Vardy's agent allegedly plotted a 'cover up' by 'lying' that former staff were to blame for leaking stories about Coleen Rooney if it became 'undeniably obvious' her client was responsible.
After one story from Rooney's private Instagram appeared in the Sun, Ms Rooney told her followers: 'Someone on here is selling stories again to this scum of a paper. It's sad to think someone who I have accepted to follow me is betraying [me] for either money or to keep a relationship with the press.'
Discussing this post, Ms Watt is said to have acknowledged a role in providing information to the newspaper, according to messages disclosed to the court, writing: 'Such a victim. Poor Coleen … And it wasn't someone she trusted. It was me.'
The pair are said to have then discussed concerns that Ms Rooney increasingly suspected Ms Vardy of leaking to the media and had unfollowed her on Instagram.
Ms Watt allegedly suggested that if any issues were raised, they would claim 'one of the girls in the office has my old laptop that had your passwords saved on it, so it will have been them'.
In other messages, Ms Vardy is said to have viciously described Ms Rooney as a 'c***' and a 'nasty bitch' while revealing she wanted to leak stories about her in a series of heated WhatsApp exchanges with her agent.
The two-day hearing has come to an end with judgment to be handed down on Monday.
zimbabimba
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b1ches ... what can you do. Too much money and too much free time.