Rebekah Vardy faces new legal battle over defamation costs with Coleen Rooney | Leicestershire Live

The so-called “Wagatha Christie” case is due to return to court for a legal costs hearing. Leicester City star Jamie Vardy’s wife Rebekah Vardy lost her defamation claim against Coleen Rooney in July 2022 when Ms Justice Steyn ruled that Ms Rooney’s viral social media post accusing Ms Vardy that he leaked his private information to the press was “substantially. True”.

In an order in October that year, the judge ordered that Ms Vardy pay 90% of Ms Rooney’s costs. Mrs Rooney, 38, the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney, has incurred total costs of more than £2m. Ms Vardy, 42, was ordered to pay £800,000 of the costs bill in November.

However, this was not Ms Rooney’s final bill for the total costs and the case is due to be returned to the High Court in London for a hearing before a costs judge. These judges assess the costs and expenses incurred during civil cases and determine how much the winning parties can recover and reduce the costs if necessary or if they are deemed unreasonable.

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In the viral social media post from October 2019 at the heart of the defamation claim, Ms Rooney said she had been running a “sting operation” for months and accused Ms Vardy of leaking information about her life to the media private. Ms Rooney publicly claimed Ms Vardy’s account was the source behind three articles in The Sun newspaper which featured false details she posted on her private Instagram profile – of them traveling to Mexico for a procedure “sex selection,” plans to return to television and the flooded basement at her home.

Following the high-profile trial, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favor of Ms Rooney, finding it “likely” that Ms Vardy’s former agent Caroline Watt had leaked information to The Sun and that she “knew and condoned this behaviour”. .

The judge added that Ms Vardy became “actively involved”, “directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Ms Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential media interest and answering further questions addressed by the press through Mrs Watt’.

Tuesday’s hearing before Senior Costs Judge Andrew Gordon-Saker will start at 10.30am.

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