Rebekah Vardy Ordered to Pay Additional £100,000 in ‘Wagatha Christie’ Libel Case

Rebekah Vardy has been ordered to pay an additional £100,000 towards legal fees in her ongoing libel case against Coleen Rooney. This decision was made by Senior Costs Judge Andrew Gordon-Saker at a hearing held in London this week.

Vardy, who is married to Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy, had previously been involved in a legal dispute with Rooney, the wife of former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, over allegations that Vardy leaked private information to the press. In July 2022, the High Court found Rooney’s claims about Vardy to be “substantially true,” and ordered Vardy to cover a significant portion of Rooney’s legal expenses, with an initial payment of £800,000 set in October 2022.

The recent court proceedings did not require the presence of either Vardy or Rooney, focusing instead on preliminary matters related to the overall assessment of legal costs. Judge Gordon-Saker remarked that this detailed “line-by-line” cost assessment might occur in early 2025, urging the parties to expedite the process and “put it behind them.”

Representatives for Vardy have contested the scale of Rooney’s legal costs, which amount to £1,833,906.89, a figure vastly exceeding the agreed costs budget of £540,779.07. Jamie Carpenter, in defense of Vardy, highlighted the disproportionate nature of the costs, whereas Robin Dunne, representing Rooney, attributed the high costs to Vardy’s “deplorable conduct” throughout the litigation process.

The case, colloquially referred to as the “Wagatha Christie” trial, garnered widespread attention after Rooney publicly accused Vardy of leaking stories from her private Instagram account to the press. Rooney’s attorney, Paul Lunt of Brabners, faced accusations of misconduct related to understating costs incurred in documents submitted to court. However, these allegations were refuted, with Judge Gordon-Saker ruling no misconduct had occurred.

With the court suggesting a potential review of how costs are presented in legal documentation, the case continues to unfold in the public eye as a high-profile dispute involving two notable figures from the world of sport and media.