Rebekah Vardy will have to pay about £1.5 million towards Coleen Rooney’s legal costs after losing the “Wagatha Christie” High Court case she brought against her fellow footballer’s wife.
Mrs Vardy, 40, lost her high-profile libel claim against Mrs Rooney, 36, in July. Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that Mrs Rooney’s viral social media post accusing Mrs Vardy of leaking her private information to the press was “substantially true”.
In the viral social media post in October 2019 at the heart of the libel claim, Mrs Rooney said she had carried out a months-long “sting operation” and accused Mrs Vardy of leaking information about her private life to the press. Mrs Rooney publicly claimed Mrs Vardy’s account was the source behind three stories in The Sun newspaper featuring fake details she had posted on her private Instagram profile – featuring her travelling to Mexico for a “gender selection” procedure, her planning to return to TV, and the basement flooding at her home.
Read more: Manchester woman due in court accused of pouring faeces over a statue of Captain Tom Moore
Following the high-profile trial, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in Mrs Rooney’s favour, finding it was “likely” that Mrs Vardy's agent Caroline Watt had passed information to The Sun and that Mrs Vardy “knew of and condoned this behaviour”. In an order made public on Tuesday (October 4), the judge ruled that Mrs Vardy should pay 90% of Mrs Rooney’s costs.
Mrs Rooney incurred total costs of more than £2 million, but £350,000 of those had already been racked up before the trial in May, so those were removed to produce a final figure of £1,667,860. Mrs Vardy was ordered to pay £800,000 of the costs bill by 4pm on November 15.
She will also have to pay costs incurred by seven journalists who were potential witnesses but did not give evidence – apart from a portion of their costs which Mrs Rooney has already been ordered to pay. The judge ruled on various issues relating to Mrs Rooney’s costs after receiving written legal arguments on behalf of both women.
The total amount of Mrs Vardy’s legal costs is not known, but is expected to be of a similar level to those incurred by Mrs Rooney. Mrs Justice Steyn said there were certain issues which arose during the week-long trial which justified the reduction of 10% in the amount Mrs Vardy has to pay, including Mrs Rooney’s “weak” allegation that Mrs Vardy was one of the people behind The Sun’s “Secret Wag” gossip column, and Mrs Rooney’s unsuccessful public interest defence.
“However, given the defendant’s success on the defence of truth which was at the heart of this claim, and the degree to which there was overlap between the issues, I consider that the appropriate reduction is 10%,” the judge said. Mrs Vardy had argued for a reduction to 80%, while Mrs Rooney contended there should be no reduction at all.
The final figure of costs Mrs Vardy has to pay may be reduced further if she does not agree to pay the total incurred by Mrs Rooney and, at a later date, a court considers some of those costs to have been unreasonable. Mrs Justice Steyn also decided the costs should be assessed on an indemnity, rather than a standard basis – a decision which is more favourable to Mrs Rooney in terms of the amount of her legal bill she can recover.
The judge said she was “wholly unpersuaded” by arguments put forward by Mrs Rooney’s legal team that she should do so because of Mrs Vardy’s “approach to settlement” or interviews she has given since the ruling in July. But the judge cited other issues, including her finding in the ruling that Mrs Vardy and her former agent Caroline Watt had “deliberately deleted or destroyed evidence”.
Read next:
Tributes pour in for 'gorgeous' mum mauled to death by American bulldogs
- Husband, 35, who "on the face of it, has normal existence", stalked seven women including schoolgirls from his car in terrifying 90 minute rampage
- Cyclist dad-of-two left with horrific injuries in 'hit-and-run' crash captured on CCTV
- University of Salford removes student nurses from NHS mental health unit under investigation by police
