Coleen Rooney may not be a household name in America, but in England, she’s one of the most famous WAGs (wives and girlfriends of footballers), and she’s been the subject of numerous documentaries about a scandal she was involved in a few years ago. The latest, Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, which is now streaming on Hulu, has been produced with her complete participation to provide her firsthand account of the court trial that arose when she accused fellow WAG Rebekah Vardy of planting stories about her in The Sun newspaper, and Vardy sued her for libel.

Opening Shot: Coleen Rooney, the wife of English football player and manager Wayne Rooney, drives around pointing out all of the locations where she gets accosted by paparazzi. As she pulls the car over to get out and buy a coffee, she explains that this cafe is where she sent the infamous Tweet that changed the course of her life. As she leaves, a paparazzo is waiting for her and snaps a few shots.

The Gist: Coleen Rooney was dubbed “Wagatha Christie” in 2019 when she publicly revealed on social media that someone in her inner circle of friends was feeding information that Coleen posted to her private Instagram account to The Sun newspaper, one of England’s most widely-read tabloids. In a spectacular reveal, Coleen posted that after some sleuthing, she narrowed down the informant and wrote, “It’s……. Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

Vardy, the wife of footballer Jamie Vardy, was an acquaintance of Rooney’s, but she sued Rooney for libel and lost after Rooney provided enough evidence to substantiate her accusation.

In Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, not only do we hear from Rooney and those close to her about the events that led to this trial, but she provides an intimate look into her personal life. This series might be one of the more detailed portraits of Rooney thus far, not just chronicling her rise from obscurity as a 16-year-old high school student dating a soccer star to one of the most photographed women in England, but also revealing many details about her personal life, including her childhood and the tragic death of her sister. It also doesn’t shy away from her often troubled marriage to Wayne Rooney. Wayne himself participates in the show and is (reluctantly) forthcoming about many of his public blunders, including drunk driving and alleged cheating, all of which was laid bare in the press, and all of which caused Coleen to reconsider their relationship at times.

Their fragile relationship and their temporary move to America were fodder for headlines in the English newspapers, and Coleen started to realize that many of the headlines were based on photos and captions she’d posted to her private Instagram account. Rooney set about blocking everyone except for Vardy from seeing her posts, which she would then plant with false information and gossip. When headlines featuring that information were published in The Sun, she realized Vardy was selling stories to them. What ensued was a trial that gripped the country, mostly thanks to Rooney’s sleuthing tactics that impressed even her own lawyers.

During the trial, Rooney discovered that Vardy’s scheme went beyond just selling stories, and that private messages between Vardy and her agent included manipulating Rooney and using the death of her sister as a way to get into her good graces. At that point, all bets were off, and Rooney was committed to bringing Vardy down.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? This mini-series rehashes much of the same information as the Discovery+ documentary Vardy Vs. Rooney: The Wagatha Trial, the main difference being that that version featured interviews with Rebekah Vardy and her allies, and Rooney declined to participate, though her side of the story was depicted.

Our Take: The timing of the release of this series is almost unfortunate given the recent release of Beckham, which is another snapshot of a high-profile couple in the world of English football. While that series is a fawning look at the career of David Beckham and his relationship with wife Victoria and paints him as a once-in-a-generation talent and their marriage as a durable match made in heaven, Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story focuses on the one thing Coleen Rooney will go down in history for: framing a woman for spreading gossip. Wayne Rooney was every bit as successful as David Beckham on the pitch, but the simple fact is, gossip and scandal sells so this is the documentary he and his family have earned.

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There is something compelling about the level of detail provided in this three-part series, as Coleen describes the timeline for setting out to frame Vardy. On top of that, she carried the entire thing out in secret. The day she publicly revealed Vardy to be the informant, no one, not even her best friends or her husband was aware of the accusation she was about to make. It stunned not just the public, but everyone close to Coleen.

Sometimes as an American, it’s easy to ignore what goes on in the British press because it’s often so sensationalized, but if you look at this for one is really is: one very famous celebrity making a wild accusation about another, and naming names, it’s bold. It’s brash. It’s pure entertainment. It also kind of destroyed both women’s lives, at least for a time. The series is definitely entertaining when you look at it on its surface as a public social media spat between celebrities, but if you dig deeper and realize the stress that this honestly kind of dumb situation wrought (Coleen, why not just delete your account in the first place and eliminate the threat of a spy?), it is downright ridiculous that we care at all.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: After a series of stories were planted about the Rooneys in The Sun, Coleen explains that she felt compelled to out whoever the informant was. Episode one ends with Rooney saying, “I needed evidence… I had to think of some sort of trap,” as the show hovers on a photo of Rebekah Vardy.

Performance Worth Watching: For some reason, the series features character witnesses like Piers Morgan, as despicable a man as they come, to describe the microscope that the Rooneys live under and Britain’s tabloid culture. While it’s understandable that the show includes someone from the press to explain the type of coverage the Rooneys receive, I only wish they hadn’t chosen someone so racist, sexist, and generally objectionable.

Memorable Dialogue: “When I put that post up, I didn’t in a million years think I would be in a court case,” Rooney says of her naiveté surrounding what would eventually become one of England’s biggest media spectacles in recent years.

Our Call: The Wagatha Christie story is as good a celebrity scandal as you can get; the shock value of Rooney’s reveal will go down as one of the boldest celebrity moves of the past decade. But there have already been other documentaries and even a scripted series dramatizing these events. The world doesn’t necessarily need one from Coleen Rooney’s POV in order for us to understand the situation better. If you’re a fan of football or WAG culture, you’ll certainly appreciate the level of access this series gives to the Rooneys and their inner circle, but general audiences can safely SKIP IT.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.