Rebekah Vardy asks ‘who is Davy Jones?’ in exchange during libel trial

Rebekah Vardy had to have the the expression “Davy Jones’ locker” explained to her in a surreal moment during her high-profile libel claim against Coleen Rooney.

Mrs Vardy, 40, appeared to accept that her agent leaked information from Coleen Rooney’s private Instagram account to a newspaper, but denied it was “new” information.

During her third day in the witness box at the High Court, Mrs Vardy, 40, also said she did not reply to her agent Caroline Watt when she allegedly admitted leaking stories to The Sun in a WhatsApp chat, because she instead messaged her about “Gemma Collins faceplanting” on Dancing On Ice.

However, the some attendees in the courtroom were left sniggering when Mrs Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne, appeared to use an expression that went over her head – forcing the judge to reiterate the phrase simply meant “at the bottom of the sea”.

On Thursday, Mrs Vardy entered the witness box for the third time on what is expected to be the final day of her evidence in what has been dubbed the “Wagatha Christie” case.

Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies leaking stories to the media and is suing her fellow footballer’s wife for libel, while Mrs Rooney is defending the claim on the basis her post was “substantially true”.

On Thursday, the court heard one of the articles in the case concerned Mrs Rooney’s car being damaged in early 2019, with a picture of the damaged Honda being posted on her private Instagram account.

A story was published in The Sun about Mrs Rooney’s car three days later, written by journalist Andy Halls.

Mrs Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne, read out texts between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt, where the agent told the TV personality: “I would have tried to have done a story on Coleen but the evidence has been deleted.”

The court was told Ms Watt continued: “Halls is trying to do a story on Coleen crashing her car but her PR won’t even reply. I’ve told him I’m 100% confident that it happened but don’t know how.”

Questioning Mrs Vardy, Mr Sherborne said: “You didn’t object at any stage to the fact that Ms Watt is plainly passing on information from Mrs Rooney’s private Instagram account to Andy Halls.”

Mrs Vardy said The Sun already had the information, adding: “I didn’t think she was passing on any new information.”

Mr Sherborne asked: “Take the word new out of it. Did you or did you not know that Ms Watt was passing on information from Mrs Rooney’s private account?”

Mrs Vardy replied: “She was talking to Mr Halls about information that was already being discussed.”

“There is a reason you are avoiding my question, Ms Vardy,” Mr Sherborne said, later adding: “That’s your line and you’re sticking to it.”

Mr Sherborne later drew Mrs Vardy’s attention to a post Mrs Rooney shared in January 2019, where she said one of her followers on her private profile was “selling stories again to this scum of a paper”.

Mrs Rooney thanked people for sending messages to ask if she was OK, adding: “The car crash story was completely wrong.”

Mrs Rooney later posted a public tweet saying it was “sad” someone who followed her was “betraying” her.

While discussing this tweet in a private WhatsApp conversation, Ms Watt told Mrs Vardy “It wasn’t someone she trusted. It was me”, in a message accompanied by a laughing face emoji.

The barrister put it to Mrs Vardy that was Ms Watt admitting leaking the information to the journalist.

She replied: “That seems to be what she is saying, but I’m just looking at the times, at 18.47 I’m bathing the children, there is no response from me.”

Mr Sherborne accused Mrs Vardy of trying to throw herself a “lifeline” and asked why, after bathing her children, she didn’t respond to Ms Watt to challenge what she had said, if she didn’t know about and authorise the leak.

Mrs Vardy replied: “Without wanting to make fun of anyone, Gemma Collins faceplanting on the ice was the next message, and that’s what I had on while I was bathing my children.”

The court was also reminded that Ms Watt’s phone had fallen into the North Sea following a preliminary hearing, when Mr Sherborne said that messages between Ms Watt and a journalist from The Sun are “lying at the bottom of the sea in Davy Jones’ locker”.

Mrs Vardy replied: “Who is Davy Jones?”

“It means at the bottom of the sea,” Mrs Justice Steyn said.

Mrs Rooney is defending the libel claim brought by Mrs Vardy on the basis of truth and public interest.

The court previously heard that both women have spent “hundreds of thousands of pounds” on the case so far, with the total costs of the case expected to be at least £2m.

The libel battle comes after Mrs Rooney publicly claimed an account behind three fake stories she had posted on her personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper was Mrs Vardy’s.