The wife of English footballer Wayne Rooney, Coleen Rooney, has accused the wife of another footballer of passing stories about her to The Sun newspaper - something Rebekah Vardy strenuously denies.
Rooney posted on her Twitter account that private Instagram stories, which are posts that disappear after 24 hours on the social media app, had been leaked to the British tabloid newspaper.
Mrs Rooney claims she had set the privacy settings to ensure that the posts were only visible to one account, which belongs to Mrs Vardy.
She claims the posts which she set to be only viewable by the account were fake, including that she had been considering gender selection in order to have a baby girl.
These stories have been written about by some newspapers.
This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it...... pic.twitter.com/0YqJAoXuK1
— Coleen Rooney (@ColeenRoo) October 9, 2019
Shortly after Rooney's public accusation, Vardy responded on Instagram denying any involvement.
Vardy, married to footballer Jamie Vardy, wrote: "As I have just said to you on the phone, I wish you had called me if you thought this.
"I never speak to anyone about you as various journalists who have asked me to over the years can vouch for. If you thought this was happening you could have told me and I could have changed my passwords to see if it stopped."
She continues to say "various people" have access to her Instagram account.
Vardy added: "I'm not being funny but I don't need the money, what would I gain from selling stories on you? I liked you a lot Coleen and I'm so upset that you have chosen to do this, especially when I'm heavily pregnant.
"I'm disgusted that I'm even having to deny this. You should have called me the first time this happened."
View this post on Instagram
In Rooney's accusation on Twitter, she wrote: "For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing The Sun newspaper of my private posts and stories."
She added: "To try and prove this, I came up with an idea, I blocked everyone from viewing Instagram except ONE account."
She continued to claim over the past five months she has posted "false stories" to see if they were then written about. As well as the gender selection story, Rooney says stories about her returning to TV and a basement flood were featured in the press despite only being published by her on her private Instagram visible only to one account.
Main image: File photos of Coleen Rooney (left) who has accused Rebekah Vardy (right) of selling stories from her private Instagram account to the tabloids | Image: Peter Byrne, Ian West/PA Wire/PA Images