And so Wayne Rooney’s wife decided to do something about it, mounting a five-month social-media sting operation in which she blocked all but one suspect from viewing her personal Instagram stories and then populated them with fake news items to see if they made it into the Sun.

Rebekah Vardy responded quickly on Instagram, denying that she leaked any of Rooney’s business to the tabloids and suggesting someone else with access to her account did so.

A Google search revealed that the Sun published a story about the Rooneys’ basement flooding on Tuesday.

In the Sun’s item about the Rooney-Vardy spat Wednesday, the paper wrote that it asked Coleen Rooney’s representatives for confirmation before publishing those stories “and on each occasion they declined to comment.”

Rebekah Vardy had attracted attention during the tournament for accusing French police of treating English fans like “animals.”

In early August , Wayne Rooney announced he would be leaving D.C. United at the end of this MLS season to return to England as player-manager of Derby County, a club in the second-division League Championship.