Wayne Rooney has been giving evidence at the High Court in London of the toll the "Wagatha Christie" controversy has taken on his wife Coleen.
He told the court that Mrs Rooney has become "a different mother" and "a different wife" since her "reveal" post and Rebekah Vardy's subsequent libel claim against her.
In a viral social media post in October 2019, Coleen Rooney, 36, said she had carried out a "sting operation" and accused Rebekah Vardy, 40, of leaking "false stories" about her private life to the press.
The fake stories Mrs Rooney planted on her Instagram during the "sting operation" featured her travelling to Mexico for a "gender selection" procedure, her planning to return to TV, and the basement flooding at her home.
Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies leaking stories to the media and is suing her fellow footballer's wife for libel. Mrs Rooney is defending the claim on the basis her post was "substantially true" and in the public interest.
Mr Rooney, a former England captain, has attended court with his wife for the entire trial, sitting in the front row of Court 13 in the Royal Courts of Justice.
He told the court that the period after his wife's "reveal" post had been "very traumatic" for her and that he had watched her "really struggle".
"For me and my wife, we don't want to be in this court," he said.
"I've watched my wife over the last two and a half years really struggle with everything ... becoming a different mother, a different wife.
"It's been very traumatic for my wife."
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He added: "Hopefully whatever the judgment is in this case, myself, my wife and our children can get on and live our lives because it was not something that we wanted to be part of."
In court on Tuesday, Mr Rooney said he had no idea about his wife's "sting operation" to find the person behind leaks from her private Instagram account until after she published the post in which she claimed it was Mrs Vardy's account in October 2019.
However, he said Mrs Rooney did tell him she suspected Mrs Vardy in the months before the reveal post.
Mr Rooney recounted: "During 2017, I recall Coleen being really frustrated that posts/stories that she had uploaded to her private Instagram account were being leaked to The Sun.
"Whilst it was obviously upsetting Coleen, I didn't want to get involved. I don't read the press, particularly The Sun, and I have never been particularly active on social media - or at least I wasn't active on social media at the time.
"Coleen keeps a lot to herself and I just didn't pay much attention to the matter at all.
"In around January 2019, whilst we were living in the US, I recall Coleen again being distressed about the fact that private information that she had uploaded to her private Instagram account was being leaked to The Sun.
"I remember she uploaded something on Twitter to make it clear that she was aware of what was happening and that she was unhappy about it.
"I think it was around this time that Coleen had mentioned to me that she thought it could be Becky [Rebekah Vardy].
"Again, being the person that I am, I didn't pay a massive amount of attention to it but I hoped that the leaks would stop now that Coleen had gone public and that would be the end of the matter.
"I didn't speak to anyone else about the fact that Coleen suspected it was Becky.
"I now understand that Coleen uploaded various fake posts, including one about gender selection, one about returning to TV and one about our basement flooding, all of which were false, all of which were accessible only by Becky's Instagram account and all of which appeared in The Sun.
"I had no idea about any of that until Coleen uploaded her post on 9 October 2019.
"I don't read the papers or online articles and whilst I am on social media, I am not particularly active and certainly wouldn't monitor Coleen's private Instagram account or speak with her about content she had been uploading.
"I don't even think Coleen and I discussed the specific articles as they appeared in The Sun.
"Coleen didn't even mention to me that she was going to upload her post prior to it being published on 9 October 2019.
"I was in the US at the time the post was uploaded, the time zone is around four or five hours behind the UK.
"Had I known what Coleen was up to in terms of trying to catch Becky out and making it all public then, irrespective of whether it would have changed her mind, I would have spoken with Paul Stretford [Mr Rooney's adviser] about it to get his view.
"The fact that I never spoke to Paul about the matter demonstrates my very limited knowledge and involvement."
Asked on Tuesday if it was a matter of concern that his wife was claiming stories were being leaked about her and their family, he replied: "It's always a matter of concern when it involves your family. There's information that my wife said had been leaked."
He added that other stories were inaccurate.
"It was something that me and my wife have had to deal with since we were 16.
"I have learned how to deal with that and not let it have much impact on my way of thinking."
Mrs Rooney finished her evidence on Monday with the trial expected to end on Thursday.
At the end of her evidence on Monday, the mother-of-four was asked about the aftermath of her "reveal" post and Mrs Vardy's response.
Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Mrs Vardy, said: "She makes it clear to you that it wasn't her, doesn't she?"
"She says she has zero interest in what's going on in my life, which I believe is totally untrue," Mrs Rooney replied. "She talks about me a lot... so that was a lie," she added.
Mrs Rooney then discussed WhatsApp messages the court had heard between Mrs Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt - in which Mrs Rooney featured.
She said she had never met or spoken to Ms Watt, commenting on the agent's exchanges with Mrs Vardy: "The messages that went on between them were just evil and uncalled for."
Source: Press Association
