Vardy's PR wishes she 'never boarded the boat' she dropped Wagatha phone off

22 October 2023 , 10:56

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Vardy's PR wishes she 'never boarded the boat' she dropped Wagatha phone off

It was the mobile phone that was the talk of the nation, now, the husband of Caroline Watt, Rebekah Vardy's PR manager has spoken out about what really happened to the iPhone at the heart of the Wagatha Christie case

The phone was alleged to have been dropped in the North Sea on a boat trip and contained WhatsApp messages between Caroline and her boss, who brought a High Court libel case against Coleen Rooney after she accused Vardy of leaking stories from her private Instagram account.

Now Caroline's husband, Steve, has spoken out to set the record straight, he says, as he's "sick of reading and hearing inaccurate things" about the phone and how it ended up in the North Sea. Football manager Steve, said: "As far as I was concerned, the court case was the end of it but it’s being brought up again by people in the public eye. I’m sick of reading and hearing inaccurate things about it. I want to set the record straight. The dropping of the phone was a simple accident."

Rebekah Vardy lost her libel battle against Coleen Rooney last year (Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Caroline Watt didn't give evidence during the Wagatha Christie trial (INSTAGRAM)

Steve, who is an ex-Chelsea player and recent manager of Hythe Town, spoke out about his concern for his wife to The Sun and revealed that he emailed the solicitors to ensure she wasn't part of the High Court trial, which saw Vardy ordered to pay Coleen Rooney £1.5million in costs after the judge ruled Coleen’s Wagatha Christie accusations were “substantially true”.

Sharing a new photo of the day the phone went missing, Tuesday, August 10, 2021, Steve told how he and his family went on a boat trip and in the image Caroline is seen holding the iPhone 12 Pro on the choppy ride, which he said he arranged for his kids who were desperate to see dolphins and seals in the ocean around his native Scotland. He said the "jaunt was due to last for two hours but was cut short."

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He continues to claim Caroline's infamous phone "fell out of her coat pocket" at one point and was warned by the woman from the boat company: "Be careful, we don't have insurance for lost property." Following the warning, Caroline then held the phone in her hand.

Steve went on to say that one of the group became seasick and this in turn made their daughter and Caroline feel unwell. “Caroline was standing, leaning on the railings overlooking the water and concentrating on the horizon to try to stop herself from being ill. I was cuddling our daughter behind her," he went on. "In hindsight, if all the sickness hadn’t started, we would still be sitting down and it would never have all happened."

When a seal was spotted by the skipper, the engine was cut so it wouldn't be scared away, but when the engine restarted, Steve said the judder of that and another boat passing caused Caroline to drop the phone in the water. "Caroline did a little stumble forward on to the railings. I saw the phone drop towards the water. She just turned round and said, ‘F***, I’ve dropped my phone’. That was the first thing that came out of her mouth, ‘F***’."

Claiming the phone loss was a "pure accident" Steve added that the family cannot afford to lose items a pricey phone, Steve recalled how the incident made Caroline, who he added takes medication for oesteoarthritis, even more stressed. “Caroline and I wish we’d never, ever set foot on that boat. This wasn’t a luxury yacht in Dubai, this was a drizzly day in Aberdeenshire. "The sea was choppy and Caroline dropped the phone purely by accident.”

Steve told that he emailed their solicitor, without Caroline knowing, to "remove everything relating to her that I could from the case" and added that when anything comes up related to the Wagatha Christie saga, he can see his wife going into herself.

He added: "I love Caroline and I am tired of her being quizzed constantly. I am sick of people talking nonsense — using stories that are simply not true for their own benefit to justify things. You would imagine people would have moved on with their lives. I thought it would go away but that clearly isn’t happening."

The phone was a huge part of the case, which took place earlier this year, with legal experts saying it was a “shame” potentially crucial messages were “lying at the bottom of the sea in Davy Jones’ locker”. And the lost phone has now featured in theatre production Vardy V Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial, Channel 4 show Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama and now Coleen’s Disney+ programme.

Kathryn Williams