Entertainment
Coleen Rooney grabs groceries as she brands Rebekah Vardy’s £900k libel battle budget ‘grotesque’ in High Court hearing
The latest round in the ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel battle between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney returned to court today and saw reps for Rooney brand Vardy’s £900,000 budget for the battle ‘grotesque’.
As lawyers for the pair appeared at the High Court preliminary hearing via videolink, Rooney was instead seen stocking up on groceries at Waitrose this morning in Cheshire.
Rooney was photographed shielding herself from the drizzle during the food run, pulling her black rain coat over her head as she pushed a trolley full of goods.
It came as today’s hearing saw the High Court deal with the timetable to a possible trial and any disputes over the parties’ legal costs, heard to cost a total of £897,000.
Rooney’s barrister John Samson asked the court to ‘reject the claimant’s cost budget and ask them to review it because, in the words of my lay client, it is grotesque’.
Judge Roger Eastman heard that the sums involved were ‘huge’, and that ‘the claimant’s budget to date, including incurred costs, is double that of the defendant’.
In written submissions, Vardy’s barrister Sara Mansoori said Vardy’s overall budget was ‘£897,000, the estimated costs of which are £465,842.
‘This compares to Mrs Rooney’s estimated costs in her cost budget of £402,312.’
Mansoori said her client’s budget ‘reflects the complexity, scope and scale of the legal and factual issues’.
She added: ‘Mrs Vardy’s cost budget reflects the very serious nature of the highly damaging defamatory allegation made against her – which continues to be published by Mrs Rooney.
‘It has caused enormous distress to Mrs Vardy and led to her being targeted by hostile and abusive online messages, as well as causing extreme upset and anxiety to members of her family.
‘It was necessary to take steps to seek to understand the allegations made by Mrs Rooney, which involved technical expertise, as well as to seek to resolve the dispute.
‘Regrettably this was not possible and further costs have been incurred in pursuing the claim to this stage.’
The judge said both Vardy and Rooney’s legal budgets were ‘extraordinarily large’ and asked them to try to settle the case, also giving parties until June to file revised cost budgets.
In October 2019 Rooney, 34, accused fellow WAG Vardy, 39, of leaking ‘false stories’ about her private life after carrying out a months-long ‘sting operation’ which has now famously been dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’.
The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney claimed Vardy shared fake stories she had posted on her personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper, which Vardy has vehemently denied.
She then wrote on social media: ‘For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing The Sun newspaper of my private posts and stories.
‘I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s… Rebekah Vardy’s account.’
Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denied the allegations and sued Rooney for damages for libel last June, claiming she ‘suffered extreme distress, hurt, anxiety and embarrassment as a result of the publication of the post and the events which followed’.
Vardy also claimed her husband was targeted during football matches, with opposition fans chanting ‘your wife is a grass’ for up to five minutes at a time.
Rooney’s lawyers said the post was ‘entirely legitimate and justified’ and referred to Vardy’s ‘exceptionally close relationship’ with The Sun and some of its journalists.
In January, the High Court ruled the post ‘clearly’ identified Vardy as ‘being guilty of the serious and consistent breach of trust’ Rooney alleges.
The court heard both women had agreed for a ‘stay’ of the proceedings until February so there could be ‘one final attempt to resolve the matter without the need for a full trial’.
In November last year Vardy won the first stage of the proceedings and Rooney was ordered to pay £23,000 in costs.
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