Coleen Rooney: As she enters I'm A Celeb final, we revisit her Wagatha Christie saga with Rebekah Vardy

The wife of England football legend Wayne Rooney, Coleen has been inundated with support on this year’s series of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Now, having reached the final three alongside McFly’s Danny Jones and Reverend Richard Coles, she is the last woman left standing in the jungle.

Coleen, 38, has impressed viewers with her grit and determination, casually shaking off the bugs and critters in every trial she took part in. From keeping calm on the Fright Bus to drinking blended testicles without batting an eyelid, the mum-of-four was practically a lock for the season finale.

She also had perhaps the most emotional scene in the show on last night’s (December 7) episode, where the remaining campmates were surprised by visits from family members. Coleen broke down in tears when mum Colette appeared by the campfire, saying that she “didn’t want” to let her go. She then turned around to see her two youngest children Kai and Cass ran into the camp.

Through her tears, Coleen said: “I’m crying because I’m happy, because I’ve missed you so much.” She then gave her family a tour of the camp, before reassuring her children that she would be back in their arms in just a couple of days - and then they would crack on with Christmas.

Ahead of the ITV final, we decided to take a trip down memory lane to what many will consider to be Coleen’s most famous moment - when she became Wagatha Christie and uncovered who had been leaking her private life to the media.

In 2019, Coleen revealed on X that someone had been leaking her personal Instagram stories to the Sun newspaper. After going through her settings, adjusting who could see certain posts and experimenting a bit, she concluded that the person responsible was Rebekah Vardy, the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie.

The following year, Vardy sued Coleen for libel, with a civil trial taking place in London. Vardy’s claims were dismissed after the court ruled that Coleen’s accusations were “substantially true” - which is the chief defence in most libel cases.

Vardy was then ordered by the court to pay for both her and Coleen’s legal costs, which at the time were reported to be in the region of £3m. But Vardy was not satisfied with the outcome, and escalated her case to the High Court.

This second trial began in May 2022, and while the onus was on Coleen to provide evidence that her statement was “substantially true” it also transpired that Vardy’s agent had lost her phone, and the WAGs copy of the messages between them also could not be retrieved. This was considered to be critical evidence, and Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in Coleen’s favour.

The High Court trial became the subject of a 2023 Disney+ documentary called Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story.