Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy set for another court showdown as the Wagatha Christie saga refuses to end-Rebecca Sayce-Entertainment – Metro

Wagatha Christie’s twists and turns continue (Picture: REX)

The Wagatha Christie case involving Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney is set to return to court for a hearing over legal costs.

Vardy, 42, lost her high-profile libel claim against fellow media star Rooney, 38, in July 2022 when Justice Steyn ruled that Rooney’s viral social media post accusing Vardy of leaking her private information to the press was ‘substantially true’.

In an order from October 2022, the judge ruled that Vardy should pay 90% of Rooney’s costs.

Rooney, the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney, incurred total costs of more than £2 million but £350,000 of those had been racked up before the trial in May.

Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, was ordered to pay £800,000 of the bill that November.

However, this was not the total sum spent on the proceedings and the case is set to return to the High Court in London for a hearing before a specialist costs judge.

Coleen Rooney set up a ‘sting operation’ to catch the celeb selling stories about her to the press (Picture: MCPIX/REX/Shutterstock)

She accused fellow WAG Rebekah Vardy of being the perpetrator, leading to a lengthy legal battle (Picture: Karwai Tang/WireImage)

These judges assess the costs and expenses incurred during civil cases and rule on how much successful parties can recover, and can reduce the costs if needed or if they are deemed to be unreasonable.

The hearing on Tuesday before Senior Costs Judge Andrew Gordon-Saker is due to begin at 10.30am.

In the viral social media post in October 2019 at the heart of the libel claim, 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.

Rooney publicly claimed Vardy’s account was the source behind three stories in The Sun newspaper featuring fake details she had posted on her private Instagram profile – featuring her travelling to Mexico for a ‘gender selection’ procedure, her planning to return to TV, and the basement flooding at her home.

Following the high-profile trial, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in Rooney’s favour, finding it was ‘likely’ that Vardy’s former agent Caroline Watt had passed information to The Sun and that she ‘knew of and condoned this behaviour.’

A judge ruled the viral social media post accusing Vardy of leaking her private information to the press was ‘substantially true’ (Picture: Neil Mockford/GC Images)

Vardy was ordered to pay £800,000 of the costs bill that November. (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The judge added that Vardy had ‘actively’ engaged, ‘directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt.’

Coleen addressed her viral tweet in an interview with British Vogue last year, saying she didn’t draft it beforehand on her Notes app, explaining instead she prefers the old-fashioned method.

‘I like a pen and paper – a pencil and rubber, actually, so I can rub it out,’ she said. ‘So I started writing what I wanted to say and then the next morning I put it out there. That was the start of something that I would never have expected.’

The case has inspired a Disney Plus documentary as well as a West End show – and of course, plenty of online memes.

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