Coleen Rooney, who is married to former England player Wayne Rooney, has accused the wife of another British soccer player of leaking fake stories about her to the tabloid newspaper The Sun. A new statement from Rooney, in which she details the honeytrap she laid out to catch the alleged culprit, has transfixed the internet in the U.K. and beyond — you don’t need to be well-versed in British tabloid culture (and the celebrities it tracks) to appreciate the modern-day detective work at play.
“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,” Rooney, who has long battled tabloid exposes, most famously detailing her husband’s infidelities, wrote in a statement shared to her Twitter and Instagram accounts. She then laid out the lengths she went to identify the person she claims is responsible. Do take notes.
To figure out and prove who the informer was, Rooney explained that she blocked everyone with access to her private Instagram from viewing her stories — except for one account owned by the person Rooney…