Coleen Rooney confident of winning libel battle against Rebekah Vardy but regrets it got ‘this far’

Coleen Rooney has revealed she is confident of winning her libel battle against Rebekah Vardy but regrets that it has got ‘this far’ as the case gets underway at the High Court today.

Contrary to widespread speculation, MailOnline understands that neither Rebekah or Coleen or their famous footballer husbands are expected to be in court today for a preliminary hearing with lawyers representing both Wags coming face to face for the first time.

Rebekah, wife of Leicester City and England striker Jamie Vardy, launched a £1million High Court libel action after Coleen accused her in an Instagram post a year ago of leaking stories about her and others to the media.

It is believed that she will deny being ‘The Secret Wag,’ the Sun newspaper’s source of stories about Coleen and other footballers’ partners.

After hearing legal representations from both sides, a High Court judge will then set out the parameters for the full trial, which is expected to take place next year, when both women will give evidence.

A spokesman for Coleen told MailOnline: ‘Coleen’s defence is already filed and in the public domain. It sets out the facts of her case and will be the same, whatever is decided today.

‘Given those facts, Coleen remains entirely confident in her position as she has been throughout.

‘It is still a matter of regret to her that the matter has been allowed by the other party to get this far.’

In a sensational 55-page defence document, Coleen has set out in granular detail why she thought Rebekah was behind the anonymous ‘Secret Wag’ column.

She described Rebekah as having an ‘established history and habitual practice of providing private information to journalists’.

A source said: ‘Becky is set to swear publicly and on oath to the High Court that she was not the so-called Secret Wag for the newspaper.’

The Secret Wag issue is seen as central by lawyers on both sides in establishing whether Rebecca did leak stories from Coleen’s private social media accounts to The Sun, which she has consistently denied.

The ‘Wagatha Christie’ saga began a year ago when Coleen tweeted that she had secretly planted three fake stories on Instagram in the months before, but said she blocked all her followers except Rebekah from seeing them.

After stories appeared which contained references to the faked posts, Coleen famously declared the results of her investigation, announcing: ‘It’s . . . Rebekah Vardy’s account.’

The mother-of-four, who shares Kai, 10, Klay, seven, Kit, four, and Cass, two, with Derby County footballer Wayne, also 34, is determined to fight off the libel case.

But for her part, Rebekah is seeking substantial damages and says she has suffered ‘severe and extreme hostility and abuse’ in the fallout after the claims were published on Instagram.

She is expected to make a bombshell courtroom denial of Coleen’s claims that she was ‘The Secret Wag’.

A source said yesterday: ‘Becky is set to swear publicly and on oath to the High Court that she was not the so-called Secret Wag for the newspaper.’