Rebekah Vardy has been forced to pay Coleen Rooney around £1.5 million in legal costs, £800k of which must be paid by next month.
Football legend Jamie Vardy’s wife dramatically lost to Coleen in July following a week long trial theatrically names “Wagatha Christie’.
Vardy launched proceedings against Coleen back in 2020 following Rooney’s accusations that she had been leaking “false stories” about her own private life.
However, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favour of Coleen and in a statement published this week, Steyn shared some of the legal bill.
This bill is yet to be finalised with Coleen but was estimated by her legal team to be around £1,667,860.48.
Vardy has been ordered by the court to pay £800,000 within six weeks as well as to pay 90% of the costs which are yet to be shared.
She also has to pay costs incurred by seven different journalists who were witnesses but did not give evidence.
Steyn shared in her statement that she had done “the best” that she could in order to “estimate the likely level of recovery” and while Rooney had not yet produced a bill, the cost was estimated at around £800,000.
She wrote:
“The claim has been dismissed. The defendant succeeded in establishing that the essence of the libel was substantially true.”
Colleen’s lawyer Paul Lunt wrote to The Mirror:
“The High Court has today decided that Rebekah Vardy must pay Coleen Rooney’s legal costs on an indemnity basis – the highest basis that the Court could order.
“The reasoning given for this decision is that there was a finding at trial that Rebekah Vardy had deliberately deleted or destroyed evidence. That behaviour falls outside the ordinary and reasonable conduct expected of a party in legal proceedings.
“This followed a separate finding regarding the loss of evidence that was in the possession of Rebekah Vardy’s former agent, Caroline Watt.
“Coleen’s pursuit of that evidence is a major reason why her legal costs increased substantially from the original estimates given to the court long before the start of the trial.
“Rebekah Vardy has been ordered to pay £800,000 to Coleen Rooney by 15 November as an interim payment until the final total she must pay is either agreed or decided upon by the court.
“Naturally, Rebekah will also be responsible for her own legal costs of bringing her failed libel action against Coleen.
“Today’s decision also makes Rebekah liable to pay for legal costs incurred by certain journalists from News UK, publishers of The Sun newspaper, following her unsuccessful efforts to involve them in the proceedings.”
Crazy…
