Hearing to assess full costs of Wagatha Christie libel battle due to begin
A specialist costs court has previously been told that Coleen Rooney’s claimed legal bill from the libel claim totalled more than £1.8 million.
Rebekah Vardy could discover the full amount she must pay Coleen Rooney following their high-profile Wagatha Christie libel battle as a full assessment of their legal costs is due to get underway on Tuesday.
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 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.
The full amount that Mrs Vardy must now pay Mrs Rooney is now set to be determined at a hearing in London before Costs Judge Mark Whalan, which could last up to nine days.
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.
