Coleen Rooney has alleged that her legal expenses from the infamous Wagatha Christie libel case against Rebekah Vardy exceeded £1.8 million, as informed to the High Court.
Rebekah Vardy, spouse of Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy, lost the lawsuit in July 2022 after taking Coleen to court. The dispute began when Coleen, wife of ex-Manchester United player Wayne Rooney, accused Rebekah on social media of leaking her private details to the press, a claim Mrs Justice Steyn deemed “substantially true”.
In October 2022, Rebekah was ordered to cover 90 percent of Coleen’s legal fees, with an initial payment of £800,000 demanded. The pair’s legal teams have since reconvened in a London court over disagreements regarding the final sum, as Mrs Vardy’s lawyers stated that Mrs Rooney’s claimed legal bill totalled £1,833,906.89, the Mirror reports.
Jamie Carpenter KC, representing Vardy, revealed in written submissions this Monday, October 7, 2024, that this included costs for a lawyer staying “at the Nobu Hotel, incurring substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges”.
He further added: “The costs dispute has been rendered particularly intractable by the sheer magnitude of the costs claimed by Mrs Rooney, in absolute terms and when compared to her agreed costs budget, the number of errors in the bill and the extraordinary nature of some of the costs claimed”
The QC further highlighted issues with the legal bill, criticising it for having been “drawn without sufficient care” and possessing a “a ‘kitchen sink’ approach”. Carpenter further stressed that it unfairly included “over £120,000 of costs to which Mrs Rooney has no entitlement”.
Moreover, distress was directed at David Sherborne, Rooney’s barrister, alleging he racked up “total fees over the course of the proceedings of £497,850”.
After detecting that content from her private Instagram account might have been disclosed, Rooney undertook a detailed “sting operation” spanning several months before accusing Mrs Vardy of being the source leaking her private life details to the media.
Mrs Rooney made waves by publicly declaring that Mrs Vardy’s account had been the source of three fabricated stories published in The Sun newspaper. These stories included false allegations about her flying to Mexico for a “gender selection” procedure, her intentions to make a television comeback, and a flooding incident in the basement of her house.
The high-stakes trial concluded with Mrs Justice Steyn siding with Coleen, deeming it “likely” that Vardy’s agent, Caroline Watt, had indeed relayed details to the tabloid. Furthermore, the judge affirmed that Mrs Vardy was aware and approved of this misconduct.
The judge noted that Mrs Vardy had “actively” participated, “directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt.”
The hearing, presided over by senior costs judge Andrew Gordon-Saker and which saw neither Mrs Rooney nor Mrs Vardy in attendance on Monday, is set to conclude this Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
A source close to Rebekah revealed: “They have been trying to pick her pockets because they think they can get away with it. They underestimated their costs and are over-billing her.
“From the costs of experts to legal fees, the figures are ludicrous. They’ve taken a kitchen sink approach and are trying to get as much out of her as they can.”
It emerged that the ultimate defamation costs have soared to more than three times than the £540,000 that mother-of-five Rebekah had initially budgeted for.
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