Rebekah Vardy agrees to finally pay Coleen Rooney eye-watering sum six years after Wagatha Christie saga

6 May 2025, 11:37

Rebekah Vardy has agreed to pay Coleen Rooney a six-figure sum years after the Wagatha Christie libel case erupted.

Rebekah, 42, was told that she must pay 90 per cent of Coleen's bill, following their high-profile Wagatha Christie libel battle.

Rebekah has agreed to pay almost £1.2 million of Coleen Rooney's legal costs.

A specialist costs court has previously been told that Mrs Rooney, the wife of former England striker Wayne Rooney, ran up a legal bill totalling more than £1.8 million after she successfully defended Mrs Vardy's High Court claim in 2022.

In written submissions for a hearing on Tuesday, Mrs Vardy's barrister, Juliet Wells, said that Mrs Rooney's total legal bill was £1,833,906.89.

The bill "has now been settled at £1,190,000, being c.£1,125,000 plus interest of c.£65.000".

Ms Wells continued that Mrs Rooney is now claiming "assessment costs" of more than £300,000, which she described as "grossly disproportionate" and should be capped at "no more than £100,000".

The full amount of the assessment costs will be determined at the hearing before Costs Judge Mark Whalan, who said he was "pleased" that the two sides had come to a "commercial accommodation".

Neither Mrs Vardy nor Mrs Rooney attended the remote hearing.

Read More: Coleen Rooney 'entirely successful' in Wagatha Christie case, Judge says

Read More: Rebekah and Jamie Vardy land Netflix deal following Wagatha Christie battle

The development brings the six-year Wagatha saga to a near end.

In 2019, Mrs Rooney accused Mrs Vardy, the wife of striker Jamie Vardy, of leaking her private information to the press on social media, which Mrs Justice Steyn found was "substantially true".

In October 2022, the judge ordered Mrs Vardy to pay 90% of Mrs Rooney's legal costs of the case, with an initial £800,000 then ordered to be paid.

A hearing last October was told by barristers for Mrs Vardy that Mrs Rooney's total claimed costs ran up to £1,833,906.89.

Jamie Carpenter KC, for Mrs Vardy, said in written submissions that the bill had "a 'kitchen sink' approach" and included "over £120,000 of costs to which Mrs Rooney has no entitlement".

He continued that this included costs for a lawyer staying "at the Nobu Hotel, incurring substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges".

Robin Dunne, for Mrs Rooney, said in court: "(The solicitor) did not book the Nobu Hotel. He booked a modest hotel but on the first night of staying there did not have any working wifi or shower.

"He was offered to stay at the Nobu by the defendant's agent, who has a preferential rate."

Mr Dunne said that the food and minibar tab ran up to £225, but said the minibar tab "ran to £7, and ran to two bottles of water".

In written submissions, he said: "It sits ill in Mrs Vardy's mouth to now claim that Mrs Rooney's costs, a great deal of which were caused directly by her conduct, are unreasonable."

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 - her travelling to Mexico for a "gender selection" procedure, her planning to return to TV and the basement flooding at her home.

After 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" and had "actively" engaged.